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TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


WITH 


AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 


. ■*&&& 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

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Jane Addams 







TWENTY YEARS 
AT HULL-HOUSE 

WITH 

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 


BY 

JANE ADDAMS 

AUTHOR OF “DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL ETHICS,” 
“THE SPIRIT OF YOUTH AND THE CITY STREETS,” 
“PEACE AND BREAD IN TIME OF WAR,” ETC. 


Edited by 

EVA WARNER CASE r 

FORMER DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS 
MANUAL TRAINING HIGH SCHOOL 
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI 



j£eto gork 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1923 


Printed in the United States of America 




W\IM 

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Copyright, igio, 1923 
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1923. 





NOV 28 *23 


©C1A765151 
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INTRODUCTION 

I 

* 5 - 

“ Chicago's most useful citizen!” 

This is Cre way Chicagoans like to refer to Jane Addams. 
How well she has earned her right to this title, the reader 
may judge from the plain facts, simply set down, in the suc¬ 
ceeding pages. 

Jane Addams is her own best biographer. No one can read 
the stoty related here without gaining an understanding, 
better than any mere editorial interpretation could ever give, 
of the high moral courage, the unswerving devotion to duty, 
the passion for self-sacrifice for the good of others that served 
to make this frail woman elect to pass her life in an unsavory 
quarter of a huge industrial city and to spend the inherit¬ 
ance which would have maintained her in comfortable idle¬ 
ness amid the beautiful things she loved in ministering to 
the needy of that district. 

Since 1910, much of Miss Addams’s time has been given to 
the public through service on important state and national 
committees having to do with industrial and social as well 
as philanthropic problems. Despite all this, she has remained 
head resident of Hull-House and has found time to write 
for publication. 

During the tragic years of the war,. Miss Addams bent her 
energies toward peace—a peace that should prevent future 
wars. She helped to organize the Women’s International 
League for Peace and Freedom at the Hague in 1915 and 
has ever since remained its president. For those who seek a 




viii TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

continuation of her efforts, her most recent work, “ Peace ai. 
Bread in Time of War,” published in 1922, is recommended 
For those who have not time for this, the following passage] 
from “Women as World Builders,” by Floyd Dell, may help 
toward an understanding of Miss Addams’s peace activities: 

“What is perhaps the most outstanding fact in the tem¬ 
perament of Miss Addams is revealed only indirectly \n her 
autobiography: it may be called the passion of conciliation. 

. . . . It is not intended to suggest that Miss Addams is one! 
of those inveterate compromisers who prefer 1 bad peace to 
a good war. But she has the gift of imaginative sympathy; 
and it is impossible for her to have toward either party in a 
conflict the cold hostility that each party has for the other. 
She sees both sides, and even though one side is the wrong 
side, she cannot help seeing why its partisans believe in it.” 

Since any attempt at interpreting Miss Addams or her 
motives must fall far short of the magnificent self-revealment 
of her own simple story, the reader is left to form his own judg¬ 
ment after reading the book. “Twenty Years at Hull-House” 
has been edited, not for literary values but for its influence 
in citizenship and Americanization. This edition is intend¬ 
ed primarily for young people in the early years of high school 
and is especially adapted for supplementary reading in courses 
in community civics though equally valuable in reading 
courses in English. Since its primary purpose is arousing a 
sense of civic responsibility, the notes are few and brief, 
with no attempts at “scholarly” or “research” effects. The 
book itself is such a throbbing, vital human document that 
attempts to improve upon it in any way seem useless. Only 
where information is needed to give a clear understanding of 
the narrative or to bring out the author’s purpose has a note 
been supplied. Where reference is made to some well-known 
English or American writer, with whom high-school students 



INTRODUCTION 


IX 


should be familiar, no note is given. For foreign authors or 
where some special explanation is needed the necessary 
information is at hand. 

The study outline, too, has grown out of the essential 
purpose of the book. There is not a single purely “literary” 
question in the list. All that are not intended merely to 
test the student’s comprehension of the facts Miss Addams 
has presented are so framed -as to bring out the sense of civic 
responsibility in the youthful mind. 

II 

“To provide a center for a higher civic and social life, to 
institute and maintain educational and philanthropic enter¬ 
prises, and to investigate and improve the condition in the 
industrial districts of Chicago.” 

This was the object of Hull-House as set forth in its first 
charter, granted in 1894. In the succeeding pages, Miss 
Addams has traced the growth of the settlement and explained 
the ideals of the residents from its beginning in 1889 up to the 
end of its twentieth year in 1909. Space limitations will per¬ 
mit only the briefest further mention of the development of 
the various original Hull-House activities and the inception of 
new ones since 1909. 

The residential force at Hull-House numbers approximately 
fifty members of both sexes and of varying races and creeds. 
While no university qualification has ever been made, the 
majority of the residents have always been college persons. 
The residents pay their own expenses, under the direction of 
a house committee, on the plan of a cooperative club. The 
unmarried women have quarters in the original Hull-House 
Building, the unmarried men live in the Butler Building, 
while the families are housed in the Hull-House Apartments 
and the Boys’ Club Building. 




X 


TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


Applicants are received on six months’ trial, when vacancies 
occur. Those who prove their worth and are voted into mem¬ 
bership must pledge themselves to remain for two years. All 
th ese residents have other employment or are persons of 
independent means. Hence they give only their leisure time 
to the work at Hull-House. In addition to these regular 
residents, 150 persons come to Hull-House each week as 
teachers, visitors, or directors of clubs. The work of these 
nonresidents proves a valuable supplement to that of the 
regular members. 

According to Hull-House records, 9,000 persons come to the 
settlement each week during the winter months as members 
of organizations or parts of an audience. The attractions 
offered include classroom instruction in English, current 
topics, typing, and arts and crafts for the adults, with other 
classes in music, drawing, folk dancing and the domestic arts 
for the children, free public lectures on topics of general 
social and scientific interest are offered every Sunday night, 
the speakers usually being professors from some of the near-by 
universities. Gymnasium classes are maintained for old and 
young alike. Advanced courses in music and drawing, as well 
as in cooking and sewing are also offered to adults. Clubs of 
various kinds supply the needs of the men, women, and 
children of the neighborhood. 

The largest of the men’s clubs is the West Side Sportsmen’s 
Association, the successor of the Men’s Club mentioned by 
Miss Addams in Chapter XV. The present membership is 
200. Started originally to attract the men of the community 
from less desirable places of recreation, the club also has a 
civic and social program. Its ambition is to serve the Nine- 
teenth Ward and the community in the same way that the 
Gity Club and other civic organizations serve the city. 

Other clubs for men include the Greek Olympic Athletic 











INTRODUCTION 


xi 


dub, many of whose members hold wrestling and track 
ecords at home and over seas; the Greek Social Group, which 
olds its meetings every Sunday evening, with an open session 
nee a month to which they invite their friends from the 
ireek colony lying north of Hull-House—the largest Greek 
olony in America; and the Working People’s Social Science 
dub, where every conceivable social and economic question 
; discussed with understanding and interest. 

The PIuil-House Woman’s Club, with meetings every 
Wednesday afternoon from October to May, has charge of 
ractically all the mothers’ activities. Its programs deal with 
eneral discussion and investigation of, and action upon 
uestions pertaining to household science, civics, advance- 
tent of women, and care of children. It regularly sends 
elevates to the State Federation of Women’s Clubs and the 
/eague of Cook County Clubs. 

Through some twenty committees the Woman’s Club 
arnes on a variety of activities. I he Old Settlers’ Party, 
ver which Miss Addams presides, has been a feature of New 
;Tar’s Day at Hull-House for twenty-six years. Six parties 
or the grown people are given each winter. Another series of 
arties for young people of working age who do not belong to 
ny of the social clubs at Hull-House is a part of the club 
i/ork. The first Wednesday in May of each year is set aside 
br a Children’s May Party. Only club members and their 
hildren may attend, but the guests usually number 800. At 
be last meeting in June, the club holds a reception for the 
oung people who have just been graduated from either public 
r private schools, and prizes are offered those who show the 
est records for attendance and punctuality throughout the 
chool course. The club also maintains a circulating library of 
bout 1,700 volumes, with an extensive children’s department. 

Other clubs for women include the People’s friendly Club, 





xii TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

which grew out of the group which twenty years ago mad 
the first attempt at cultivating vacant lots; the Circol 
Italiano, which meets weekly for dancing and social enjo} 
ment; the Greek Women’s Club and the Italian Women’ 
Club, both of which, in addition to regular recreations 
^activities, offer courses in citizenship, interior decorating 
and Red Cross nursing. 

During the World War, the Service Star Club, made up c 
wives and mothers of soldiers, met weekly at Hull-House t 
sing, to read letters from the camps, at home or abroad, an< 
each evening the club wrote at least one letter to soldiers 
preferably those in hospitals. A Red Cross chapter was als-' 
established at Hull-House, the work taking the form o 
knitting and making hospital supplies. Many lectures an< 
demonstrations in the use of substitute foods and the lessen 
ing of waste were given under the direction of the departmen 
of food conservation. The registration service of the Nine 
teenth Ward in the women’s division of the State Council ol 
National Defense was stationed at Hull-House. 

Thus the Hull-House residents, while championing the 
cause of peace, did their utmost to give aid and succor to every 
branch of war work. 

It is in connection with the children, however, that the 
most widely varying activities are to be found. From the 
kindergarten to the boys and girls of working age, something 
is offered for all. There are sixty-four children’s clubs meeting 
at Hull-House after school hours each day, with an average 
weekly attendance of more than 800 boys and girls. 

Most general in its purpose is the “Play Club,” to which 
any child is welcome without formal membership or registra¬ 
tion It was organized originally to take care of the smaller 
children, who must be looked after by an older sister during 
the mother’s absence at work or while she was cumbered with 


INTRODUCTION 


xui 


ousehold cares. Here these “Little Mothers’ may leave 
leir small charges to play while they themselves joyfully 
Attend the meeting of some club from which their responsibil- 


ies would otherwise have barred them. 


A kindergarten and a children’s library are maintained, the 
Ttter in connection with a branch of the public library. Some 
experimenting with street games in summer has proved very 
jiccessful. Fathers and mothers, sitting on their porches in 
ne short streets near Hull-House, became as interested as 
heir children, and a fine community spirit was developed. 

Health clinics are held every Tuesday and Wednesday even- 
lgs. The children are weighed, measured, and thoroughly 
xamined. Those needing treatment are recommended to the 
lichael-Reese Dispensary for further care. 1 he children are 
aught to care for their teeth and are drilled on a chart of 
iealth requirements. The residents report interest and co- 
peration, on the part of both children and parents. 

/The largest of the Hull-House clubs is the Boys’ Club, with 
membership of more than a thousand a year. This club 
>ccupies its own building, which contains, besides club rooms, 
>owling alleys, pool room, games room and band room, a 
ibrary of more than 1,500 volumes, class and study rooms, 

md shops for technical instruction. . 

The club is open during the afternoon for schoolboys and in 
he evening for working boys. 1 he boys have a band of sixty- 
wo pieces. Pool and bowling tournaments are held, the prize 
3eing two weeks at the summer camp, which is Held every 
summer during July and August at Waukegan, Ill., on the 
Tores of Lake Michigan. A savings bank conducted in the 
dub helps the boys to save money for their camp expenses. 
Members of the Hull-House Boy Scouts troop save their 
funds to attend the scout camp at Whitehall, Mich., where 
they receive a thorough two weeks’ course in scouting, or 






xiv TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

spend a week-end at the Chicago Scouts camp ground on tl 
Desplaines River when funds for the Michigan trip are nt 
available. 

Numerous classes and clubs are organized within the clu 
itself to suit varying needs. A printing class composed ( | t 
eighth-grade boys edits, prints, and publishes once a mont 
the “Hull-House Boys’ Record,” the official club paper. 

In the cobbling class, under the direction of an experience* p 
practical shoe mender, the boys learn to mend shoes for them , t 
selves and their families, the only charge being for the leathe 
used. In the four woodwork classes, the boys are encouragec \ 
to make things which can be used in the home. 

The Whittling Club, the Camera Club, and the Chess Club 
all under the guidance of experts, are self-explanatory. The 
Explosion Club, so named from a slight explosion which 
occurred during a chemistry experiment, is composed of boys 
who meet once a week for a story, a stereopticon talk on birds 
or animals, a visit to some factory or plant, and an occasional 
Saturday hike. 

The Hull-House gymnasium, opened in 1893 and enlarged 
and remodeled in 1900, is in use from 8:30 a. m. until 10 p. m. 
seven days a week. Wednesday and Saturday evenings are 
set aside for practice and contest games. Monthly athletic 
contests are held, in addition to the interclass and interclub 
leagues, in basket ball, track, volley ball, and indoor baseball. 

1 he monthly gymnasium attendance is about 3,000. 

All members are given a physical examination before being 
permitted to enter the classes. The members are divided into 
four groups: junior boys, 10 to 12 and 12 to 15 years; news¬ 
boys, 12 to 15 years; working and high-school boys, 15 to 18 
years; men over 18. The last named are arranged in groups 
of thirty. I he gymnasium has fifteen showers, which are kept 
in constant use by the members and the men of the neighbor- 







INTRODUCTION 


XV 


hood. During the year, more than 6,000 paid showers are 
kaken, in addition to 12,000 taken by members. 

The social clubs all meet in the evening. At present, eight¬ 
een such clubs meet at Hull-House under the direction of 
leaders secured by the Social Clubs committee. Eight are 
composed of both boys and girls, ten entirely of girls. Various 
nationalities are represented, the Italian, Greek, and Jewish 
^prevailing. The clubs are classified into age groups: the 
jjuniors from 14 to 17, the seniors 17 or over. Club policies 
hire debated and decided upon by the Hull-House Clubs’ 
Monthly Council, to which all the clubs maintain regular 
representatives. I he club directors also hold monthly meet¬ 
ings, which are occasionally addressed by outside speakers. 
./The purely girls’ clubs include the Ida Wright Club, made 
up largely of girls of Bohemian, Polish, and Lithuanian 
parentage; the Silver Sword, of Russian girls interested in 
reading and dramatics; the Ukeleie Club, which originated in 
connection with community singing during the war; the Book 
and Needle Club, made up of Russian girls who like to read 
and sew; the Nyoda, originally a Camp Fire Group of Russian 
girls, now a “discussion club”; the Aim Well Club, whose 
members, all Russian, are versed in parliamentary law and 
specialize in folk dancing, clay modeling, and story-telling; the 
Gloom Dodgers, another Russian group, who are fond of out¬ 
door festivities and do much picnicking and hiking; the 
Tillicums, another former Camp Fire Group, interested in 
community gardening in summer and in sewing and the study 
of current movements in winter; the Jolly Circle, made up of 
15-year-olds who do a little of everything to amuse them¬ 
selves; and the Amateur Ramblers, who interspeise their 
rambles with making towels and all sorts of domestic things 
for their “hope chests.” 

The mixed clubs comprise the Allegro, composed of Italian 






xvi TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


hoys and girls who meet solely for a good time and enjoy 
playing games; the Mutual, whose members are fond of 
athletics; the Majestic, whose Irish, Italian, and German 
members dance, play games, and sing; the Ace of Clubs, which 
has the honor of having attained the highest degree of self- 
government of any of the newer clubs; the Microcosmos, an 
Italian group whose members have a good time giving plays, 
hiking, and doing other purely recreational things; the jj 
Mirabilis, another Italian group meeting for recreation only; 
and the Unique Players, whose members have presented 
several groups of farces and dramas in a highly commendable 
manner. 

Through all these varying activities, Hull House continues 
to carry out the generous purpose of its founder. Young 
college people of both sexes continue to be attracted to the 
Settlement and go forth, strengthened in purpose by their 
residence there, to start similar movements for civic improve¬ 
ment in their own communities. 

Appreciation of the great work of Miss Addams con¬ 
tinues to grow. Only recently, at a conference of the women 
of Pan-America held in Baltimore, a list was compiled of the 
twelve greatest living American women in their respective 
Helds of activity. Heading that list was Jane Addams, 
philanthropist, and included therein was Julia C. Lathrop, 

her faithful friend and fellow worker, as leader in child 
welfare. 

The following extract from Edward Sandford Martin’s 

4 1 he Unrest of Women ” may fittingly present Miss Addams 
to the young reader: 

“ Some women want the vote to add to their^ersonal luster 
or distinction^ Others want it as an instrument of power. 

. here is Miss Addams. She never seems to be reaching 
out for the vote tor any use of personal embellishment, or 




INTRODUCTION 


XVII 


V 


o add distinction or importance, which in her case would be 
lard. She seems to want it, incidentally, for women, because 
>f other things she wants for them and all mankind, and which 
he thinks, would come sooner if women had the suffrage, 
rh ese things that she wants belong to honest government 
>y capable officers and include such things as clean milk, 
imited hours of work, especially for women, restriction of 
:hild labor, protection from unguarded machinery and indus¬ 
trial diseases, old age insurance, the diversion of the pay of 
zonvicts from the pockets of contractors to the support of 
the convicts’ dependent families, and the extirpation, if 
possible, of prostitution. Miss Addams, when she talks of 
these matters, talks of them in a fashion and with a breadth 
of view and precision of instance that makes you feel that 
whatever Miss Addams is, is right.” 

Chronology of Jane Addams’s Life and Writings 


Born at Cedarville, Illinois, September 6, i860. 

Received her A. B. at Rockford College, Rockford, Illinois, 
1881. 

Spent two years in Europe, 1883-5 

Studied in Philadelphia, 1888. 

Opened Hull House, jointly with Miss Ellen Gates Starr, in 
1889. Has ever since been head resident. 

Inspector of stseets and alleys in neighborhood of Hull 
House three years. 

LL. D., University of Wisconsin, 1904. 

President of National Conference of Chanties and Correc¬ 
tions, 1909. 

A. M., Yale University, 1910. 

LL. D., Smith College, 1910. 

Vice President of National Women’s Suffrage Associa¬ 
tion, 1912. 








xviii TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

Past Chairman of Women’s Peace Party. 

Delegate to Peace Convention at 1 he Hague, 1915- 

President of the Women’s International League for Peace 
and Freedom since its organization in 1915 - 

Delegate to Peace Convention, Zurich, 19175 Vienna, 1921; 
The Hague, 1922. 

Started January 12, 1923,011 a six-months’ tour of the world 
in the interests of world peace. 

Works 

“Democracy and Social Ethics,” 1902. 

“Newer Ideals of Peace,” 1907. 

“The Social Application of Religion,” 1908. 

“The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets,” 1909. 

“Twenty Years at Hull-House,” 1910. 

“A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil,” 1912. 

“A Modern Lear,” in “Satellite Cities,” G. R. Taylor, 

J 915 - 

“Women’s Conscience and Social Amelioration,” in 
“Women at the Hague: the International Congress of Women 
and Its Results,” in collaboration with Dr. Alice Hamilton 
and Miss Emily Balch. 

“The Long Road of Woman’s Memory,” 1916. 

“Peace and Bread in Time of War,” 1922. 

Bibliography 

“Heroines of Modern Progress,” E. C. and W. D. Foster, 
1913. (pp. 280-307) 

“American Women in Civic Work,” H. C. Bennett, 1915. 
(PP- 7 i- 9 o) 

“Women as World Builders,” Floyd Dell, 1913. (pp. 30- 
4°) ( 

“Heroines of Service,” Mary Parkman, 1917. 

1 he Unrest or Women, Edward Sandford Martin, 1913. 




fftf 

CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Introduction .vii 

Twenty Years at Hull-House . i 

Notes. 4 X 5 

Study Questions. 459 








xix 










\ 


TWENTY YEARS AT 
HULL-HOUSE 

CHAPTER I 
Earliest Impressions 

On the theory that our genuine impulses may be 
connected with our childish experiences, that one’s 
bent may be tracked back to that “No-Man’s Land” 
where character is formless but nevertheless settling 
into definite lines of future development, I begin this 
record with some impressions of my childhood. 

All of these are directly connected with my father, 
although of course I recall many experiences apart 
from him. I was one of the younger members of a large 
family and an eager participant in the village life, but 
because my father was so distinctly the dominant 
influence and because it is quite impossible to set forth 
all of one’s early impressions, it has seemed simpler to 
string these first memories on that single cord. More¬ 
over, it was this cord which not only held fast my 
supreme affection, but also first drew me into the moral 
concerns of life, and later afforded a clew there to which 
I somewhat wistfully clung in the intricacy of its mazes. 






2 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

It must have been from a very early period that 
recall “horrid nights” when I tossed about in my beJ 
because I had told a lie. I was held in the grip of j 
miserable dread of death, a double fear, first, that 
5 myself should die in my sins and go straight to tha 
fiery Hell which was never mentioned at home, bud 
which I had heard all about from other children, and 
second, that my father—representing the entire adult 
world which I had basely deceived—should himself die 
o before I had time to tell him. My only method of 
obtaining relief w T as to go downstairs to my father’s 
room and make full confession. The high resolve to do 
this would push me out of bed and carry me down the 
stairs without a touch of fear. But at the foot of the 
5 stairs I would be faced by the awful necessity of pass¬ 
ing the front door—which my father, because of his 
Quaker tendencies, did not lock—and of crossing the 
wide and black expanse of the living room in order to 
reach his door. I would invariably cling to the newel 
©post while I contemplated the perils of the situation, 
complicated by the fact that the literal first step meant 
putting my bare foot upon a piece of oilcloth in front 
of the door, only a few inches wide, but lying straight 
in my path. I would finally reach my father’s bedside 
s perfectly breathless and, having panted out the his¬ 
tory of my sin, invariably received the same assur¬ 
ance that if he “had a little girl who told lies,” he was 
very glad that she felt too bad to go to sleep after- 





EARLIEST IMPRESSIONS 


3 


/ards.” No absolution was asked for nor received, 
ed'Ut apparently the sense that the knowledge of my 
/ickedness was shared, or an obscure understanding 
f the affection which underlay the grave statement, 
/as sufficient, for I always went back to bed as bold as 5 
lion, and slept, if not the sleep of the just, at least 
hat of the comforted. 

I recall an incident which must have occurred before 
was seven years old, for the mill in which my father 
ransacted his business that day was closed in 1867. 1 
The mill stood in the neighboring town adjacent to its 
>oorest quarter. Before then I had always seen the 
ittle city of ten thousand people with the admiring 
yes of a country child, and it had never occurred to 
ne that all its streets were not as bewilderingly attrac- 1 
ive as the one which contained the glittering toyshop 
md the confectioner. On that day I had my first 
ight of the poverty which implies squalor, and felt the 
urious distinction between the ruddy poverty of the 
ountry and that which even a small city presents in 2 
ts shabbiest streets. I remember launching at my 
ather the pertinent inquiry why people lived in such 
lorrid little houses so close together, and that after 
eceiving his explanation I declared with much firm- 
iess when I grew up I should, of course, have a large 2 
louse, but it would not be built among the other large 
louses, but right in the midst of horrid little houses 
ike these. 




TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


I hat curious sense of responsibility for carrying o 
the world’s affairs which little children often exhib] 
because “the old man clogs our earliest years,” 
remember in myself in a very absurd manifestation 
s I dreamed night after night that every one in th ' 
world was dead excepting myself, and that upon m ; 
rested the responsibility of making a wagon whee 
The village street remained as usual, the village black 
smith shop was “all there,” even a glowing fire upor 
othe forge and the anvil in its customary place near th 
door, but no human being was within sight. They hac 
all gone around the edge of the hill to the village 
cemetery, and I alone remained alive in the deserted 
world. I always stood in the same spot in the black- 
s smith shop, darkly pondering as to how to begin, and 
never once did I know how, although I fully realized 
that the affairs of the world could not be resumed until 
at least one wheel should be made and something 
started. Every victim of nightmare is, I imagine, 
o overwhelmed by an excessive sense of responsibility 
and the consciousness of a fearful handicap in the effort 
to perform what is required; but perhaps never were 
the odds more heavily against “a warder of the world” 
than in these reiterated dreams of mine, doubtless 
s compounded in equal parts of a childish version of 
Robinson Crusoe” and of the end-of-the-world predic¬ 
tions of the Second Adventists, a few of whom were 
found in the village, fhe next morning would often! 










EARLIEST IMPRESSIONS 


5 


31 nd me, a delicate little girl of six, with the further 
Usability of a curved spine, standing in the doorway 
f the village blacksmith shop, anxiously watching 
11 he burly, red-shirted figure at work. I would store my 
find with such details of the process of making wheels 5 
s I could observe, and sometimes I plucked up courage 
o ask for more. “ Do you always have to sizzle the 
ron in water?” I would ask, thinking how horrid it 
^ould be to do. “Sure!” the good-natured blacksmith 
yould reply, “that makes the iron hard.” I would sigh 10 
leavily and walk away, bearing my responsibility as 
!>est I could, and this of course I confided to no one, 
or there is something too mysterious in the burden of 
‘the winds that come from the fields of sleep” 0 to be 
:ommumcated, although it is at the same time too 15 
leavy a burden to be borne alone. 

My great veneration and pride in my father mani- 
ested itself in curious ways. On several Sundays, 
loubtless occurring in two or three different years, the 
LJnion Sunday School of the village was visited by 20 
strangers, some of those “strange people” who live 
outside a child’s realm, yet constantly thrill it by their 
fclose approach. My father taught the laige bible class 
In the left-hand corner of the church next to the pulpit, 
and to my eyes at least, was a most imposing figuie in 25 
his Sunday frock coat, his fine head rising high above all 
the others. I imagined that the strangers were filled 
with admiration for this dignified person, and I prayed 






6 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

with all my heart that the ugly, pigeon-toed little giij 
whose crooked back obliged her to walk w T ith her he; 
held very much upon one side, would never be pointej 
out to these visitors as the daughter of this fine mat 
5 In order to lessen the possibility of a connection bein 
made, on these particular Sundays I did not walk besid 
my father, although this walk was the great event of th 
week, but attached myself firmly to the side of m 
Uncle James Addams, in the hope that I should b 
° mistaken for his child, or at least that I should not re 
mam so conspicuously unattached that troublesom 
questions might identify an Ugly Duckling with he | 
imposing parent. My uncle, who had many children o 
his own, must have been mildly surprised at this un 
5 wonted attention, but he w~ould look down kindly at me 
and say, “So you are going to walk with me to-day?’ 

Yes, please, LTncle James, would be my meek reply. 
He fortunately never explored my motives, nor do I 
remember that my father ever did, so that in all proba-: 
obility my machinations have been safe from public 
knowledge until this hour. 

It is hard to account for the manifestations of a 
child s adoring affection, so emotional, so irrational, so 
tangled with the affairs of the imagination. I simply 
s could not endure the thought that “strange people” 
should know that my handsome father owned this 
homely little girl. But even in my chivalric desire to 
protect him from his fate, I was not quite easy in the 



EARLIEST IMPRESSIONS 


7 


lr acrifice of my uncle, although I quieted my scruples 
/ith the reflection that the contrast was less marked 
nd that, anyway, his own little girl “was not so very 
>retty.” I do not know that I commonly dwelt much 


111 pon my personal appearance, save as it thrust itself as 
n incongruity into my father’s life, and in spite of 


id 

Snending evidence to the contrary, there were even 
Slack moments when I allowed myself to speculate as 
o whether he might not share the feeling. Happily, 
However, this specter was laid before it had time to 
n ;row into a morbid familiar by a very trifling incident. 
e )ne day I met my father coming out of his bank on the 
0 nain street of the neighboring city which seemed to me 
n t veritable whirlpool of society and commerce. With a 
Slayful touch of exaggeration, he lifted his high and 
Lining silk hat and made me an imposing bow. This 
y listinguished public recognition, this totally unneces¬ 


sary identification among a mass of “strange people” 
,vho couldn’t possibly know unless he himself made the 
sign, suddenly filled me with a sense of the absurdity of 
he entire feeling. It may not even then have seemed as 
absurd as it really was, but at least it seemed enough so 
to collapse or to pass into the limbo of forgotten specters. 

( I made still other almost equally grotesque attempts 
to express this doglike affection. The house at the end 
of the village in which I was born, and which was my 
home until I moved to Hull-House, in my earliest child¬ 
hood had opposite to it—only across the road and then 






8 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


across a little stretch of greensward—two mills belon 
ing to my father; one flour mill, to which the vario; 
grains were brought by the neighboring farmers, ai 
one sawmill, in which the logs of the native timber we 
5 sawed into lumber. The latter offered the great excit! 
ment of sitting on a log while it slowly approached til 
buzzing saw which was cutting it into slabs, and <] 
getting off just in time to escape a sudden and goi 
death. But the flouring mill was much more belovec 
io It was full of dusky, floury places which we adored, t 
empty bins in which we might play house; it had 
basement, with piles of bran and shorts which wer 
almost as good as sand to play in, whenever the mille 
let us wet the edges of the pile with water brought in hi 
i s sprinkling pot from the mill-race. 

In addition to these fascinations was the association 
of the mill with my father’s activities, for doubtless a 
that time I centered upon him all that careful imitatior 
which a little girl ordinarily gives to her mother’s way* 
2 o and habits. My mother had died when I was a baby 

and my father’s second marriage did not occur until my 
eighth year. 

I had a consuming ambition to possess a miller’s 
thumb, and would sit contentedly for a long time rub- 
- s mg between my thumb and fingers the ground wheat 
as it fell rrom between the millstones, before it was 
taken up on an endless chain of mysterious little buckets 
to be bolted into flour. I believe I have never since 



EARLIEST IMPRESSIONS 


9 


ir 


anted anything more desperately than I wanted my 
ght thumb to be flattened, as my father’s had become, 
uring his earlier years of a miller’s life. Somewhat 
iscouraged by the slow process of structural modifica- 
on, I also took measures to secure on the backs of my 
ands the tiny purple and red spots which are always 
>und on the hands of the miller who dresses millstones, 
he marks on my father’s hands had grown faint, but 
/ere quite visible when looked for, and seemed to me so 
esirable that they must be procured at all costs. Even 
hen playing in our house or yard, I could always tell 
r hen the millstones were being dressed, because the 
imbling of the mill then stopped, and there were few 
leasures I would not instantly forego, rushing at once 
3 the mill, that I might spread out my hands near the 
lillstones in the hope that the little hard flints flying 
■om the miller’s chisel would light upon their backs and 
lake the longed-for marks. I used hotly to accuse the 
ierman miller, my dear friend Ferdinand, “of trying 
ot to hit my hands,” but he scornfully replied that he 
ould not hit them if he did try, and that they were too 
ttle to be of use in a mill anyway. Although I hated 
is teasing, I never had the courage to confess my real 
urpose. 

This sincere tribute of imitation which affection 
ffers to its adored object, had later, I hope, subtler 
nanifestations, but certainly these first ones were alto- 
ether genuine. In this case, too, I doubtless contrib- 








io TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


uted my share to that stream of admiration which oi 
generation so generously poured forth for the self-mac 
man. I was consumed by a wistful desire to apprehenl 
the hardships of my father’s earlier life in that far-awa i 
5 time when he had been a miller’s apprentice. I kne^l 
that he still woke up punctually at three o’clock, be 
cause for so many years he had taken his turn at th 
mill in the early morning, and if by chance I awoke a! 
the same hour, as curiously enough I often did, 
ioimagined him in the early dawn in my uncle’s old mil 
reading through the entire village library, book afte 
book, beginning with the lives of the signers of th< 
Declaration of Independence. Copies of the same books 
mostly bound in calfskin, were to be found in the librarj 
15 below, and I courageously resolved that I too would 
read them all and try to understand life as he did. ] 
did in fact later begin a course of reading in the early 
morning hours, but I was caught by some fantastic 
notion of chronological order and early legendary form. 
20 Pope’s translation of the “Iliad,” even followed by 
Dryden’s “Virgil,” did not leave behind the residuum 
of wisdom for which I longed, and I finally gave them 
up for a thick book entitled “ The History of the World ” 
as affording a shorter and an easier path. 1 

2s Although I constantly confided my sins and per¬ 
plexities to my father, there are only a few occasions on 
which I remember having received direct advice or 
admonition; it may easily be true, however, that I have 



EARLIEST IMPRESSIONS 


11 


oijirgotten the latter, in the manner of many seekers 
id ter advice who enjoyably set forth their situation but 
no not really listen to the advice itself. I can remember 
ai admonition on one occasion, however, when, as a 
e :tle girl of eight years, arrayed in a new cloak, gorgeous 
Kiyond anything I had ever worn before, I stood before 
1 y father for his approval. I was much chagrined by 
s remark that it was a very pretty cloak—in fact so 
uch prettier than any cloak the other little girls in the 
mday School had, that he would advise me to wear 
y old cloak, which would keep me quite as warm, with 
ie added advantage of not making the other little girls 
el badly. I complied with the request but I fear with- 
it inner consent, and I certainly was quite without the 
y of self-sacrifice as I walked soberly through the 
llage street by the side of my counselor. My mind was 
isy, however, with the old question eternally suggested 
t the inequalities of the human lot. Only as we neared 
ie church door did I venture to ask what could be 
me about it, receiving the reply that it might never 
i righted so far as clothes went, but that people might 
J equal in things that mattered much more than clothes, 
e affairs of education and religion, for instance, which 

f * attended to when we went to school and church, and 
at it was very stupid to wear the sort of clothes that 
ade it harder to have equality even there. 

It must have been a little later when I held a con- 
rsation with my father upon the doctrine of fore- 







12 


TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

ordination, which at one time very much perplexed r 
childish mind. After setting the difficulty before h 
and complaining that I could not make it out, althoii] 
my best friend “understood it peifectly, I settb 
s down to hear his argument, having no doubt that 
could make it quite clear. To my delighted surpri* 
for any intimation that our minds were on an equali 
lifted me high indeed, he said that he feared that he ai! 
I did not have the kind of mind that would ever undt 




I o stand foreordination very well and advised me not 
give too much time to it; but he then proceeded to s; 
other things of which the final impression left upon n 
mind was, that it did not matter much whether oi 
understood foreordination or not, but that it was vei 

1 s important not to pretend to understand what yc 

didn’t understand and that you must always be hone 
with yourself inside, whatever happened. Perhaps c 
the whole as valuable a lesson as the Shorter Catechisn l 
itself contains. 

20 My memory merges this early conversation on r; 
ligious doctrine into one which took place years lat< 
when I put before my father the situation in which 
found myself at boarding school when under gre;, 
evangelical pressure,.and once again I heard his test 

2 5inony in favor of “mental integrity above everythin 

else.” I J 

At the time we were driving through a piece of timb< 
in which the wood choppers had been at work durin 









tk; 


EARLIEST IMPRESSIONS 


13 


: 1 


'is 


le winter, and so earnestly were we talking that he 
jddenly drew up the horses to find that he did not 
now where he was. We were both entertained by the 
icident, I that my father had been “lost in his own 


31 


mber” so that various cords of wood must have 
>caped his practiced eye, and he on his side that he 
lould have become so absorbed in this maze of youth- 
j il speculation. We were in high spirits as we emerged 
om the tender green of the spring woods into the clear 
?ht of day, and as we came back into the main road I 
itegorically asked him:— 

What are you? What do you say when people ask 




a 


DU 


His eyes twinkled a little as he soberly replied: 
I am a Quaker.” 


<< 


“But that isn’t enough to say,” I urged. 

“Very well,” he added, “to people who insist upon 
itails, as some one is doing now, I add that I am a 
icksite Quaker;” and not another word on the weighty 
ibject could I induce him to utter. 

These early recollections are set in a scene of rural 
auty, unusual at least for Illinois. The prairie round 
le village was broken into hills, one of them crowned 
/ pine woods, grown up from a bagful of Norway pine 
eds sown by my father in 1844, th e very year he came 
Illinois, a testimony perhaps that the most vigorous 
oneers gave at least an occasional thought to beauty, 
he banks of the mill stream rose into high bluffs too 







i 4 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE j 

perpendicular to be climbed without skill, and contai 
mg caves of which one at least was so black that 
could not be explored without the aid of a candle; ail 
there was a deserted limekiln which became associate 
sin my mind with the unpardonable sin of Hawthorne] 
“Lime-Burner.” 0 My stepbrother and I carried cj 
games and crusades which lasted week after week, ar 
even summer after summer, as only free-ranging cout 
try children can do. It may be in contrast to this th; 
oone of the most piteous aspects in the life of city chi 
dren, as I have seen it in the neighborhood of Hul 
House, is the constant interruption to their play whic 
is inevitable on the streets, so that it can never have an 
continuity,— the most elaborate “plan or chart” o 
5 “fragment from their dream of human life” is sure t 
be rudely destroyed by the passing traffic. Althoug 
they start over and over again, even the most vivaciou 
become worn out at last and take to that passive “stand 
ing ’round” varied by rude horse-play, which in tim 
o becomes so characteristic of city children. 

We had of course our favorite places and trees ant 
birds and flowers. It is hard to reproduce the com 
panionship which children establish with nature, bu 
certainly it is much too unconscious and intimate tc 
s come under the head of aesthetic appreciation or any¬ 
thing of the sort. When we said that the purple wind 
flowers — the anemone pattens — “looked as if tht 
winds had made them,” we thought much more of the 










Hi. 


EARLIEST IMPRESSIONS 


IS 


act that they were wind-born than that they were 
>eautiful: we clapped our hands in sudden joy over the 
oft radiance of the rainbow, hut its enchantment lay 
n our half belief that a pot of gold was to be found at 
ts farther end; we yielded to a soft melancholy when 
heard the whippoorwill in the early twilight, but 
/bile he aroused in us vague longings of which we spoke 
olemnly, we felt no beauty in his call. 

We erected an altar beside the stream, to which for 
everal years we brought all the snakes we killed during 
ur excursions, no matter how long the toilsome journey 
thich we had to make with a limp snake dangling be- 
ween two sticks. I remember rather vaguely the 
eremonial performed upon this altar one autumn day, 
/hen we brought as further tribute one out of every 
undred of the black walnuts which we had gathered, 
nd then poured over the whole a pitcherful of cider, 
resh from the cider mill on the bam floor. I think we 
ad also burned a favorite book or two upon this pyre of 
tones. The entire affair carried on with such solemnity 
/as probably the result of one of those imperative im- 
ulses under whose compulsion children seek a cere¬ 
monial which shall express their sense of identification 
/ith man’s primitive life and their familiar kinship with 
he remotest past. 

Long before we had begun the study of Latin at the 
ullage school, my brother and I had learned the Lord’s 
ffayer in Latin out of an old copy of the Vulgate, 0 and 


I o 


I S 


2 O 


2 5 







16 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

gravely repeated it every night in an execrable pi - 
nunciation because it seemed to us more religious th 1 
“plain English.” 

When, however, I really prayed, what I saw befc: 

5 my eyes was a most outrageous picture which adorn 1 
a song-book used in Sunday School, portraying t 
Lord upon His throne surrounded by tiers and tiers F 
saints and angels all in a blur of yellow. I am ash am j 
to tell how old I was when that picture ceased to appe * 

1 o before my eyes, especially when moments of teiroi coi * 

pelled me to ask protection from the heavenly powei. 

I recall with great distinctness my first direct conta 
with death when I was fifteen years old: Polly was .t 
old nurse who had taken care of my mother and h. 

15 followed her to frontier Illinois to help rear a secoL 
generation of children. She had always lived in o , 
house, but made annual visits to her cousins on a far* 
a few miles north of the village. During one of the: 
visits, word came to us one Sunday evening that Pol 

20 was dying, and for a number of reasons I was the on 
person able to go to her. I left the lamp-lit, warm hou 
to be driven four miles through a blinding storm whi< 
every minute added more snow to the already hi| 
drifts, with a sense of starting upon a fateful erran 

2 5 An hour after my arrival all of the cousin’s family we 

downstairs to supper, and I was left alone to watch wi 
Polly. The square, old-fashioned chamber in the lone 
farmhouse was very cold and still, with nothing to 1 


r( 

i3 

I 

10 

:!- 

8 

r 

ij 

a) 

a 

n 

« 

i 

4 


C| 

d 

N 

1 

t 

I! 

1 : 

1 


EARLIEST IMPRESSIONS 17 

heard but the storm outside. Suddenly the great change 
came. I heard a feeble call ol “Sarah,” my mother’s 
name, as the dying eyes were turned upon me, followed 
by a curious breathing and in place of the face familiar 
from my earliest childhood and associated with homely 
household cares, there lay upon the pillow strange, 
august features, stern and withdrawn from all the small 
affairs of life. That sense of solitude, of being un¬ 
sheltered in a wide world of relentless and elemental 
forces which is at the basis of childhood’s timidity and 
which is far from outgrown at fifteen, seized me ir¬ 
resistibly before I could reach the narrow stairs and 
summon the family from below. 

As I was driven home in the winter storm, the wind 
through the trees seemed laden with a passing soul and 
the riddle of life and death pressed hard; once to be 
young, to grow old and to die, everything came to that, 
and then a mysterious journey out into the Unknown. 
Did she mind faring forth alone? Would the journey 
perhaps end in something as familiar and natural to the 
aged and dying as life is to the young and living? 
Through all the drive and indeed throughout the night 
these thoughts were pierced by sharp worry, a sense ol 
faithlessness because I had forgotten the text Polly had 
confided to me long before as the one from which she 
wished her funeral sermon to be preached. My comfort 
as usual finally came from my father, who pointed out 
what was essential and what was of little avail even in 


18 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


ie 


such a moment as this, and while he was much too 
to grow dogmatic upon the great theme of death, I 
a new fellowship with him because we had discusse 
together. 

s Perhaps I may record here my protest against 
efforts, so often made, to shield children and yoi 
people from all that has to do with death and sorrowfc 
give them a good time at all hazards on the assumpt )r 
that the ills of life will come soon enough. Young peoh 
o themselves often resent this attitude on the part of tl ii 
elders; they feel set aside and belittled as if they we 
denied the common human experiences. They too w 1 
to climb steep stairs and to eat their bread with tea 
and they imagine that the problems of existence wh 
5 so press upon them in pensive moments would be 1 
insoluble in the light of these great happenings. 

An incident which stands out clearly in my mind 


s 


an exciting suggestion of the great world of moral ent 
prise and serious undertakings must have occurr 
o earlier than this, for in 1872, when I was not yet twel 


years old, I came into my father’s room one morning 
find him sitting beside the fire with a newspaper in 1 
hand, looking very solemn; and upon my eager inqui 
what had happened, he told me that Joseph Mazzii 
5 was dead. I had never even heard Mazzini’s name, ai 
after being told about him I was inclined to grc 
argumentative, asserting that my father did not knc 
him, that he was not an American, and that I could n< 












EARLIEST IMPRESSIONS 19 

anderstand why we should he expected to feel badly 
about him. It is impossible to recall the conversation 
vith the complete breakdown of my cheap arguments, 
but in the end I obtained that which I have ever re¬ 
garded as a valuable possession, a sense of the genuine 5 
relationship which may exist between men who share 
[arge hopes and like desires, even though they difFer in 
Nationality, language, and creed; that those things 
:ount for absolutely nothing between groups of men 
vho are trying to abolish slavery in America or to throw 1 
bff Hapsburg 0 oppression in Italy. At any rate, I was 
heartily ashamed of my meager notion of patriotism, 
lind I came out of the room exhilarated with the con¬ 
sciousness that impersonal and international relations 
ire actual facts and not mere phrases. I was filled with 1 
oride that I knew a man who held converse with great 
ninds and who really sorrowed and rejoiced over 
happenings across the sea. I never recall those early 
conversations with my father, nor a score of others like 
hem, but there comes into my mind a line from Mrs. 2 
drowning in which a daughter describes her relations 
vith her father:— 

“He wrapt me in his large 
Man’s doublet, careless did it fit or no.” 



CHAPTER II 


Influence of Lincoln 


I o 


I 5 


2 O 


I suppose all the children who were born about th 
time of the Civil War have recollections quite unlik 
those of the children who are living now. Although 
was but four and a half years old when Lincoln died, 
distinctly remember the day when I found on our tw< 
white gate posts American flags companioned wit! 
black. I tumbled down on the harsh gravel walk in nr 
eager rush into the house to inquire what they wen 
“there for.” To my amazement I found my father ii 
tears, something that I had never seen before, having 
assumed, as all children do, that grown-up people neve 
cried. The two flags, my father’s tears and his im 
pressive statement that the greatest man in the world 
had died, constituted my initiation, my baptism, as it 
were, into the thrilling and solemn interests of a world 
lying quite outside the two white gate posts. The great 
war touched children in many ways: I remember an 
engraved roster of names, headed by the words “Ad- 
dams’ Guard,” and the whole surmounted by the in¬ 
signia of the American eagle clutching many flags, 
which always hung in the family living-room. As chil¬ 
dren we used to read this list of names again and again. 




20 







INFLUENCE OF LINCOLN 


21 


We could reach it only by dint of putting the family 
Bible on a chair and piling the dictionary on top of it; 
using the Bible to stand on was always accompanied by 
a little thrill of superstitious awe, although we carefully 
put the dictionary above that our profane feet might 5 
touch it alone. Having brought the roster within reach 
of our eager fingers, — fortunately it was glazed, — we 
would pick out the names of those who “had fallen on 
the field” from those who “had come back from the 
war,” and from among the latter those whose children 10 
were our schoolmates. When drives were planned, we 
would say, “Let us take this road,” that we might pass 
the farm where a soldier had once lived; if flowers from 
the garden were to be given away, we would want them 
to go to the mother of one of those heroes whose names 15 
we knew from the “ Addams’ Guard.” If a guest should 
become interested in the roster on the wall, he was at 
once led by the eager children to a small picture of 
Colonel Davis which hung next the opposite window, 
that he might see the brave Colonel of the Regiment. 20 
The introduction to the picture of the one-armed man 
seemed to us a very solemn ceremony, and long after the 
guest was tired of listening, we would tell each other all 
about the local hero, who at the head of his troops had 
suffered wounds unto death. We liked very much to 2 3 
talk to a gentle old lady who lived in a white farmhouse 
a mile north of the village. She was the mother of the 
village hero, Tommy, and used to tell us of her long 



22 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


anxiety during the spring of ’62; how she waited da 
after day for the hospital to surrender up her son, eac 
morning airing the white homespun sheets and holdin, 
the little bedroom in immaculate readiness. It wa 
5 after the battle of Fort Donelson that Tommy wa 
wounded and had been taken to the hospital at Spring 
field; his father went down to him and saw T him getting > 
worse each week, until it was clear that he was going t( 
die; but there was so much red tape about the depart s 
oment, and affairs were so confused, that his discharge ) 
could not he procured. At last the hospital surgeor > 
intimated to his father that he should quietly take him 
away; a man as sick as that, it would be all right; but 
when they told Tommy, weak as he was, his eyes) 
s flashed, and he said, “No, sir; I will go out of the front 
door or I’ll die here.” Of course after that every man in ; j 
the hospital worked for it, and in two weeks he was | 
honorably discharged. When he came home at last, his t 
mother’s heart was broken to see him so wan and l 
o changed. She would tell 11s of the long quiet days that j : 
followed his return, with the windows open that the^ 
dying eyes might look over the orchard slope to the j| 
meadow beyond where the younger brothers were mow- 1 
ing the early hay. She told us of those days when his 
5 school friends from the Academy flocked in to see him, ■ 
their old acknowledged leader, and of the burning words 
of earnest patriotism spoken in the crowded little room, 
so that in three months the Academy was almost de- 




INFLUENCE OF LINCOLN 23 

tysrted and the new Company who inarched away in the 
lutumn took as drummer hoy Tommy’s third brother, 
yho was only seventeen and too young for a regular. 
53 he remembered the still darker days that followed, 
yhen the bright drummer boy was in Andersonville 
s'rison, and little by little she learned to be reconciled 
Oat Tommy was safe in the peaceful home graveyard. 
0 However much we were given to talk of war heroes, 
re always fell silent as we approached an isolated farm- 
■ouse in which two old people lived alone. Five of their 
11 ins had enlisted in the Civil War, and only the young- 
1 it had returned alive in the spring of 1865. In the 
f utumn of the same year, when he was hunting for wild 
5 ucks in a swamp on the rough little farm itself, he was 
[ zcidentally shot and killed, and the old people were 
1 ft alone to struggle with the half-cleared land as best 
iey might. When we were driven past this forlorn 
; |ttle farm our childish voices always dropped into 
oeculative whisperings as to how the accident could 
ave happened to this remaining son out of all the men 
1 the world, to him who had escaped so many chances 
death! Our young hearts swelled in first rebellion 
gainst that which Walter Pater 0 calls “the inexplicable 
lortcoming or misadventure on the part of life itself”; 
e were overwhelmingly oppressed by that grief of 
lings as they are, so much more mysterious and in- 
ilerable than those griefs which we think dimly to trace 
> man’s own wrongdoing. 








24 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

It was well perhaps that life thus early gave me; 
hint of one of her most obstinate and insoluble riddl; 
for I have sorely needed the sense of universality th 
imparted to that mysterious injustice, the burden 
s which we are all forced to bear and with which I ha 
become only too familiar. 

My childish admiration for Lincoln is closely asso‘ 
ated with a visit made to the war eagle, Old Abe, wh 
as we children well knew, lived in the state capitol 
o Wisconsin, only sixty-five miles north of our housi 
really no farther than an eagle could easily fly! He hr' 
been carried by the Eighth Wisconsin Regiment throug 
the entire war, and now dwelt an honored pensioner if 
the state building itself. 

s Many times, standing in the north end of our orchard 
which was only twelve miles from that mysterious lin 
which divided Illinois from Wisconsin, we anxiousl 
scanned the deep sky, hoping to see Old Abe fly south 
ward right over our apple trees, for it was clearly possi 
oble that he might at any moment escape from hi 
keeper, who, although he had been a soldier and ; 
sentinel, would have to sleep sometimes. We gazec 
with thrilled interest at one speck after another in th< 
flawless sky, but although Old Abe never came to see us 
5 a much more incredible thing happened, for we were at 
last taken to see him. 

We started one golden summer’s day, two happy 
children in the family carriage, with my father and 






INFLUENCE OF LINCOLN 


25 


e lother and an older sister to whom, because she was 
| 1st home from boarding school, we confidently ap- 
1 ealed whenever we needed information. We were 
riven northward hour after hour, past harvest fields in 
| r hich the stubble glinted from bronze to gold and the 5 
eavy-headed grain rested luxuriously in rounded 
c iocks, until we reached that beautiful region of hills 
!( nd lakes which surrounds the capital city of Wisconsin. 

( But although Old Abe, sitting sedately upon his high 
ii|erch, was sufficiently like an uplifted ensign to remind 10 
1 s of a Roman eagle, and although his veteran keeper, 

I lad in an old army coat, was ready to answer all our 
uestions and to tell us of the thirty-six battles and 
drmishes through which Old Abe had passed un- 
] :athed, the crowning moment of the impressive journey 15 

I ime to me later, illustrating once more that children 
re as quick to catch the meaning of a symbol as they 
re unaccountably slow to understand the real world 
bout them. 

The entire journey to the veteran war eagle had itself 20 
ynmbolized that search for the heroic and perfect which 
3 persistently haunts the young; and as I stood under 
le great white dome of Old Abe’s stately home, for one 
1 rief moment the search was rewarded. I dimly caught 
hint of what men have tried to say in their world-old 25 
Fort to imprison a space in so divine a line that it shall 
old only yearning devotion and high-hearted hopes, 
’ertainly the utmost rim of my first dome was filled 








26 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

with the tumultuous impression of soldiers marching 
death for freedom’s sake, of pioneers streaming we 
ward to establish self-government in yet another sove 
eign state. Only the great dome of St. Peter’s itself h;[r 
sever clutched my heart as did that modest curve whit 
had sequestered from infinitude in a place small enoug 
for my child’s mind, the courage and endurance which- 
could not comprehend so long as it was lost in “the voi ' 
of unresponsive space” under the vaulting sky itselli 
io But through all my vivid sensations there persisted thin 
image of the eagle in the corridor below and Lincoln 
himself as an epitome of all that was great and good. 1 
dimly caught the notion of the martyred President a n 
the standard bearer to the conscience of his country! 
i s men, as the eagle had been the ensign of courage to thd 
soldiers of the Wisconsin regiment. 

Fhnty-five years later, as I stood on the hill campusci 
of the University of Wisconsin with a commanding view! 
of the capitol building a mile directly across the city, L 
20 saw again the dome which had so uplifted my childish- 
spirit. The University, which was celebrating its 
fiftieth anniversary, had honored me with a doctor’s 
degiee, and in the midst of the academic pomp and the 
rejoicing, the dome again appeared to me as a fitting 
25 symbol of a state s aspiration even in its high mission of 
universal education. 

1 housands of children in the sixties and seventies, in 
the simplicity which is given to the understanding of a 







INFLUENCE OF LINCOLN 


27 


hild, caught a notion of imperishable heroism when 
hey were told that brave men had lost their lives that 
he slaves might be free. At any moment the conversa- 
ion of our elders might turn upon these heroic events; 
here were red-letter days, when a certain general came 5 
o see my father, and again when Governor Oglesby, 0 
vhom all Illinois children called “Uncle Dick,” spent a 
•unday under the pine trees in our front yard. We felt 
ti n those days a connection with the great world so 
nuch more heroic than the village world which sur- 10 
ounded us through all the other days. My father was 

member of the state senate for the sixteen years be- 
ween 1854 and 1870, and even as a little child I was 
limly conscious of the grave march of public affairs in 
sis comings and goings at the state capital. 15 

He was much too occupied to allow time for rem- 
niscence, but I remember overhearing a conversation 
>etween a visitor and himself concerning the stirring 
lays before the war, when it was by no means certain 
hat the Union men in the legislature would always 20 
iave enough votes to keep Illinois from seceding. I 
heard with breathless interest my father’s account of 
he trip a majority of the legislators had made one dark 
lay to St. Louis, that there might not be enough men 
or a quorum, and so no vote could be taken on the 25 
nomentous question until the Union men could rally 
heir forces. 

My father always spoke of the martyred President as 







28 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


Mr. Lincoln, and I never heard the great name withoi 
a thrill. I remember the day — it must have been or 
of comparative leisure, perhaps a Sunday — when £ 
my request my father took out of his desk a thin packf 
smarked “Mr. Lincoln’s Letters,” the shortest one c 
which bore unmistakable traces of that remarkabl 
personality. These letters began, “My dear Double 
D’ed Addams,” and to the inquiry as to how th 
person thus addressed was about to vote on a certaiij 
o measure then before the legislature, was added th* 
assurance that he knew that this Addams “would vot< 
according to his conscience,” but he begged to know ii 
which direction the same conscience “was pointing.’ 
As my father folded up the bits of paper I fairly helc 
s my breath in my desire that he should go on with the 
reminiscence of this wonderful man, whom he had 
known in his comparative obscurity, or better still, that 
he should be moved to tell some of the exciting in¬ 
cidents of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. 0 There were at 
oleast two pictures of Lincoln that always hung in my 
father’s room, and one in our old-fashioned upstairs 
parlor, of Lincoln with little Tad.° For one or all of 
these reasons I always tend to associate Lincoln with 
the tenderest thoughts of my father. 

5 I recall a time of great perplexity in the summer of 
1894, wdien Chicago was filled with federal troops sent 
there by the President of the United States, and their 
presence was resented by the governor of the state, that 







INFLUENCE OF LINCOLN 


29 


l walked the wearisome way from Hull-House to 
Lincoln Park — for no cars were running regularly at 
that moment of sympathetic strikes 0 — in order to look 
at and gain magnanimous counsel, it 1 might, from the 
marvelous St. Gaudens statue which had been but 
recently placed at the entrance of the park. Some of 
Lincoln’s immortal words were cut into the stone at 
his feet, and never did a distracted town more sorely 
need the healing of “with charity towards all” than did 
! Chicago at that moment, and the tolerance of the man 
who had won charity for those on both sides of “an 
irrepressible conflict.” 

Of the many things written of my father in that sad 
August in 1881, when he died, the one I cared for most 
was written by an old political friend of his who was 
then editor of a great Chicago daily. Fie wrote that 
while there were doubtless many members of the Illinois 
legislature who during the great contracts of the war 
time and the demoralizing reconstruction days that 
followed, had never accepted a bribe, he wished to bear 
testimony that he personally had known but this one 
man who had never been offered a bribe because bad 

men were instinctively afraid of him. 

I feel now the hot chagrin with which I recalled this 
statement during those early efforts of Illinois in which 
FIull-House joined, to secure the passage of the first 
factory legislation. I was told by the representatives o 
an informal association of manufacturers that it the 


I o 


I 5 


2 o 


2 ' 








30 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

residents of Hull-House would drop this nonsense abou 
a sweat shop bill, of which they knew nothing, certaii 
business men would agree to give fifty thousand dollar 
within two years to be used for any of the philanthrope 
5 activities of the Settlement. As the fact broke upon itk 
that I was being offered a bribe, the shame was enor¬ 
mously increased by the memory of this statement.] 
What had befallen the daughter of my father that such 
a thing could happen to her? I he salutary reflection 
i o that it could not have occurred unless a weakness in 
myself had permitted it, withheld me at least from an 
heroic display of indignation before the two men making 
the offer, and I explained as gently as I could that we 
had no ambition to make Hull-House “the largest 
x s institution on the West Side/’ but that we were much 
concerned that our neighbors should be protected from 
untoward conditions of work, and — so much heroics, 
youth must permit itself—if to accomplish this the 
destruction of Hull-House was necessary, that we would 
20 cheerfully sing a Te Deum on its ruins. The good 
friend who had invited me to lunch at the Union League 
Club to meet two of his friends who wanted to talk 
over the sweat shop bill here kindly intervened, and we 
all hastened to cover over the awkward situation by 
2 sthat scurrying away from ugly morality which seems 
to be an obligation of social intercourse. 

Of the many old friends of my father who kindly 
came to look up his daughter in the first days of Hull- 



INFLUENCE OF LINCOLN 


31 


House, I recall none with more pleasure than Lyman 
Trumbull, 0 whom we used to point out to the members 
%jf the Young Citizens’ Club as the man who had for 
i lays held in his keeping the Proclamation of Emancipa¬ 
tion until his friend President Lincoln was ready to 
: ssue it. I remember the talk he gave at Hull-House on 
me of our early celebrations of Lincoln’s birthday, his 
assertion that Lincoln was no cheap popular hero, that 
|:he “common people” would have to make an effort if 
:hey would understand his greatness, as Lincoln 
painstakingly made a long effort to understand the 
greatness of the people. There was something in the 
admiration of Lincoln’s contemporaries, or at least of 
those men who had known him personally, which was 
quite unlike even the best of the devotion and reverent 
understanding which has developed since. In the first 
place, they had so large a fund of common experience; 
they too had pioneered in a western country, and had 
surged the development of canals and railroads in order 
that the raw prairie crops might be transported to 
market; they too had realized that if this last tremen¬ 
dous experiment in self-government failed here, it would 
be the disappointment of the centuries and that upon 
their ability to organize self-government in state, 
county, and town depended the verdict of history. These 
men also knew, as Lincoln himself did, that if this 
tremendous experiment was to come to fruition, it must 
be brought about by the people themselves; that there 









I o 


32 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

was no other capital fund upon which to draw. I re¬ 
member an incident occurring when I was about fifteen 
years old, in which the conviction was driven into my 
mind that the people themselves were the great resource 
s of the country. My father had made a little address of 
reminiscence at a meeting of ‘‘the old settlers of 
Stephenson County,” which was held every summer, 
in the grove beside the mill, relating his experiences in 
inducing the farmers of the county to subscribe for, 
stock in the Northwestern Railroad, which was the first 
to penetrate the county and to make a connection with 
the Gieat Lakes at C hicago. Many of the Pennsylvania 
German farmers doubted the value of “the whole new¬ 
fangled business, and had no use for any railroad, 

1 5 much less for one in which they were asked to risk their 

hard-earned savings. My father told of his despair in 
one farmers’ community dominated by such prejudice 
which did not in the least give way under his argument, 
but finally melted under the enthusiasm of a high- 

20 spirited German matron who took a share to be paid for 
“out of butter and egg money.” As he related his ad¬ 
miration of her, an old woman’s piping voice in the 
audience called out: “Em here to-day, Mr. Addams, 
and Ed do it again if you asked me.” The old woman, 

2 5 bent and broken by her seventy years of toilsome life, 

was brought to the platform and 1 was much impressed 
by my father’s grave presentation of her as “one of the 
pubhc-spnited pioneers to whose heroic fortitude we are 





33 


INFLUENCE OF LINCOLN 

ndebted for the development of this country .’ 5 I re- 
nember that I was at that time reading with great 
bnthusiasm Carlyle’s “ Heroes and Hero Worship,” but 
bn the evening of “Old Settlers’ Day,” to my surprise, 
i- found it difficult to go on. Its sonorous sentences and 
exaltation of the man who “can” suddenly ceased to be 
eonvincing. I had already written down in my common¬ 
place book a resolution to give at least twenty-five 
:opies of this book each year to noble young people of 
ny acquaintance. It is perhaps fitting to record in this 
ffiapter that the very first Christmas we spent at Hull- 
douse, in spite of exigent demands upon my slender 
purse for candy and shoes, I gave to a club of boys 
wenty-five copies of the then new Carl Schurz’s 
‘Appreciation of Abraham Lincoln.” 

In our early effort at Hull-House to hand on to our 
leighbors whatever of help we had found for ourselves, 
ve made much of Lincoln. We were often distressed by 
he children of immigrant parents who were ashamed of 
he pit whence they were digged, who repudiated the 
anguage and customs of their elders, and counted them- 
elves successful as they were able to ignore the past. 
Whenever I held up Lincoln for their admiration as the 
greatest American, I invariably pointed out his marvel- 
ms power to retain and utilize past experiences; that he 
lever forgot how the plain people in Sangamon County 
hought and felt when he himself had moved to town; 
hat this habit was the foundation for his marvelous 






34 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

capacity for growth; that during those distracting years 
in Washington it enabled him to make clear beyond 
denial to the American people themselves, the goal 
towards which they were moving. I was sometimes 
5 bold enough to add that proficiency in the art of recog¬ 
nition and comprehension did not come without effort, 1 
and that certainly its attainment was necessary for any'? 
successful career in our conglomerate America. 

An instance of the invigorating and clarifying power 
oof Lincoln’s influence came to me many years ago in s 
England. I had spent two days in Oxford under the 
guidance of Arnold 1 oynbee’s 0 old friend Sidney Ball of 
St. John’s College, who was closely associated with that 
group of scholars we all identify with the beginnings of 
s the Settlement movement. It was easy to claim the 1 
philosophy of lhomas Hdl Green, the road-building 1 
episode of Ruskin, the experimental living in the East 
End by Frederick Maurice, the London Workingmen’s 
College of Edward Dennison, as foundations laid by 
o university men for the establishment of Toynbee Hall. 

I was naturally much interested in the beginnings of a 
movement whose slogan was “Back to the People,” 
and which could doubtless claim the Settlement as one 
of its manifestations. Nevertheless the processes by 
s which so simple a conclusion as residence among the 
poor in East London was reached, seemed to me very 
involved and roundabout, however inevitable these 
processes might be for class-conscious Englishmen, they 




INFLUENCE OF LINCOLN 35 

5 auld not but seem artificial to a western American who 
j ad been born in a rural community where the early 
| loneer life had made social distinctions impossible, 
lways on the alert lest American Settlements should 
seome mere echoes and imitations of the English 5 
I ovement, I found myself assenting to what was shown 
•e only with that part of my consciousness which had 
jjien formed by reading of English social movements, 
hile at the same time the rustic American inside looked 
1 in detached comment. I0 

Why should an American be lost in admiration of a 
oup of Oxford students because they went out to mend 
disused road, inspired thereto by Ruskin’s teaching 
r the bettering of the common life, when all the 
►untry roads in America were mended each spring by 1 s 
lf-respecting citizens, who were thus carrying out the 
mple method devised by a democratic government for 
oviding highways? No humor penetrated my high 
ood even as I somewhat uneasily recalled certain 
«’ring thaws when I had been mired in roads provided 20 
\t the American citizen. I continued to fumble for a 
i nthesis which I was unable to make until I developed 
at uncomfortable sense of playing two roles at once, 
was therefore almost with a dual consciousness that I 
as ushered, during the last afternoon of my Oxford 25 
ay, into the drawing-room of the Master of Baliol. 

I ward Caird’s “ Evolution of Religion/’ 0 which I had 
ad but a year or two before, had been of unspeakable 





36 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


comfort to me in the labyrinth of differing ethical teach 
ings and religious creeds which the many immigran 
colonies of our neighborhood presented. I remembe 
that I wanted very much to ask the author himself 
5 how far it was reasonable to expect the same quality o 
virtue and a similar standard of conduct from thes 
divers people. I was timidly trying to apply his metho 
of study to those groups of homesick immigrant! 
huddled together in strange tenement houses, amon^ 
owhom I seemed to detect the beginnings of a seculaii 
religion or at least of a wide humanitarianism evolvecr 
out of the various exigencies of the situation; somewhat 
as a household of children, whose mother is dead, out 
of their sudden necessity perform unaccustomed offices 
5 for each other and awkwardly exchange consolations,n 
as children in happier households never dream of doing 
Perhaps Mr. Caird could tell me whether there was any 
religious content in this 


Faith to each other; this fidelity 
Of fellow wanderers in a desert place. 


But when tea was over and my opportunity came for 
a talk with my host, I suddenly remembered, to the 
exclusion of all other associations, only Mr. Caird’s fine 
analysis of Abraham Lincoln, delivered in a lecture two 
5 years before. 

The memory of Lincoln, the mention of his name 
came like a refreshing breeze from off the prairie, blow 







! INFLUENCE OF LINCOLN 37 

ig aside all the scholarly implications in which I had 
ecome so reluctantly involved, and as the philosopher 
)oke of the great American “who was content merely 
) dig the channels through which the moral life of his 
puntrymen might flow,” I was gradually able to make 
natural connection between this intellectual penetra- 
on at Oxford and the moral perception which is always 
ecessary for the discovery of new methods by which 
) minister to human needs. In the unceasing ebb and 
. ow of justice and oppression we must all dig channels 
> best we may, that at the propitious moment some- 
hat of the swelling tide may be conducted to the 
arren places of life. 

Gradually a healing sense of well-being enveloped me 
nd a quick remorse for my blindness, as I realized that 
0 one among his own countrymen had been able to 
iterpret Lincoln’s greatness more nobly than this Ox- 
>rd scholar had done, and that vision and wisdom as 
ell as high motives must lie behind every effective 
roke in the continuous labor for human equality; I re- 
lembered that another Master of Baliol, Jowett 0 him- 
df, had said that it was fortunate for society that every 
ge possessed at least a few minds which, like Arnold 
oynbee’s, were “perpetually disturbed over the ap- 
arent inequalities of mankind.” Certainly both the 
nglish and American settlements could unite in con- 
•ssing to that disturbance of mind. 

Traces of this Oxford visit are curiously reflected in 






38 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

a paper I wrote soon after my return at the request c 
the American Academy of Political and Social Science 
It begins as follows:— 

The word “settlement,” which we have borrowed from Londoi 
5 is apt to grate a little upon American ears. It is not, after all, so Ion 
ago that Americans who settled were those who had adventured int 
a new country, where they were pioneers in the midst of difficu! 
surroundings. The word still implies migrating from one conditio 
of life to another totally unlike it, and against this implication th 
i o resident of an American settlement takes alarm. 

We do not like to acknowledge that Americans are divided into tw 
nations, as her prime minister once admitted of England. We are no 
willing, openly and professedly, to assume that American citizens ar 
broken up into classes, even if we make that assumption the prefac 
i 5 to a plea that the superior class has duties to the inferior. Ou 
democracy is still our most precious possession, and we do well ti 
resent any inroads upon it, even though they may be made in th* 
name of philanthropy. 

Is it not Abraham Lincoln who has cleared the title 
20to our democracy? He made plain, once for all, that 
democratic government, associated as it is with all the 
mistakes and shortcomings of the common people, stil 
remains the most valuable contribution America has 
made to the moral life of the world. 





CHAPTER III 
Boarding-school Ideals 

As my three older sisters had already attended the 
minary at Rockford, of which my father was trustee, 
ithout any question I entered there at seventeen, with 
ch meager preparation in Latin and algebra as the 
llage school had afforded. I was very ambitious to go 5 
Smith College, 0 although I well knew that my father’s 
eory in regard to the education of his daughters im- 
ied a school as near at home as possible, to be followed 
7 travel abroad in lieu of the wider advantages which 
1 eastern college is supposed to afford. I was much 10 
ipressed by the recent return of my sister from a year 
Europe, yet I was greatly disappointed at the 
oment of starting to humdrum Rockford. After the 
st weeks of homesickness were over, however, I he¬ 
me very much absorbed in the little world which the 15 
>arding school in any form always offers to its students. 
The school at Rockford in 1877 had not changed its 
ime from seminary to college, although it numbered, 
l its faculty and among its alumnae, college women 
ao were most eager that this should be done, and who 20 
ally accomplished it during the next five years. The 
hool was one of the earliest efforts for women’s higher 


39 







4 o TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


i o 


i 5 


2 O 


education in the Mississippi Valley, and from the be 
ginning was called “The Mount Holyoke 0 of the West.’ 
It reflected much of the missionary spirit of that pionee 
institution, and the proportion of missionaries amon^ 
its early graduates was almost as large as Mount Hol¬ 
yoke’s own. In addition there had been thrown aboui 
the founders of the early western school the glamour ol 
frontier privations, and the first students, conscious oi 
the heroic self-sacrifice made in their behalf, felt that 
each minute of the time thus dearly bought must be 
conscientiously used. This inevitably fostered an at 
mosphere of intensity, a fever of preparation which con 
tinued long after the direct making of it had ceased, and 
which the later girls accepted, as they did the campus 
and the buildings, without knowing that it could have 
been otherwise. 

There was, moreover, always present in the school a 
larger or smaller group of girls who consciously accepted 
this heritage and persistently endeavored to fulfill its 
obligation. We worked in those early years as if we 
really believed the portentous statement from Aristotle 0 


2 5 


which we found quoted in Boswell’s Johnson 0 and with 
which we illuminated the wall of the room occupied by 
our Chess Club; it remained there for months, solely out 
of reverence, let us hope, for the two ponderous names 


associated with it; at least I have enough confidence in 


human nature to assert that we never really believed 


that “ 1 here is the same difference between the learned 








BOARDING-SCHOOL IDEALS 


4 i 


id the unlearned as there is between the living and the 
:ad.” We were also too fond of quoting Carlyle to the 
ect, “ ’Tis not to taste sweet things, but to do noble 
id true things that the poorest son of Adam dimly 
ngs. 5 

As I attempt to reconstruct the spirit of my con- 
mporary group by looking over many documents, I 
|jid nothing more amusing than a plaint registered 
ainst life’s indistinctness, which I imagine more or 
:s reflected the sentiments of all of 11s. At any rate 10 
tre it is for the entertainment of the reader if not for 
s edification: “So much of our time is spent in 

S eparation, so much in routine, and so much in sleep, 

_i find it difficult to have any experience at all.” We 
I not, however, tamely accept such a state of affairs, 1 5 
* we made various and restless attempts to break 
rough this dull obtuseness. 

At one time five of us tried to understand De Quin- 

! ?’s marvelous “Dreams” more sympathetically, by 
Jgging ourselves with opium. We solemnly con- 20 
i ned small white powders at intervals during an entire 
jig holiday, but no mental reorientation took place, 
d the suspense and excitement did not even permit us 
> grow sleepy. About four o’clock on the weird after- 
|3n, the young teacher whom we had been obliged to 25 
Ike into our confidence grew alarmed over the whole 
[rformance, took away our De Quincey and all the re¬ 
fining powders, administered an emetic to each of the 




42 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

five aspirants for sympathetic understanding of a 
human experience, and sent us to our separate room 
with a stern command to appear at family worship afte 
supper “whether we were able to or not.” 
s Whenever we had chances to write, we took, of course! 
large themes, usually from the Greek because they wei 
the most stirring to the imagination. 1 he Greek oratioij 
I gave at our Junior Exhibition was written with infinit 
pains and taken to the Greek professor in Beloit College* 
othat there might be no mistakes, even after the Rock 
ford College teacher and the most scholarly clergyman 
in town had both passed upon it. 1 he oration upoi 
Bellerophon 0 and his successful fight with the Minotaur 
contended that social evils could only be overcome by 
shim who soared above them into idealism, as Belle 
rophon, mounted upon the winged horse Pegasus, 0 hac 
slain the earthy dragon. 

There were practically no economics taught ii 
women’s colleges — at least in the fresh-water ones — 
o thirty years ago, although we painstakingly studiei 
“mental” and “moral” philosophy, which, though fa 
from dry in the classroom, became the subject of more 
spirited discussion outside, and gave us a clew loi 
animated rummaging in the little college library. 01 
5 course we read a great deal of Ruskin and Browning, 
and liked the most abstruse parts the best; but like the 
famous gentleman who talked prose without knowing 
it, we never dreamed of connecting them with our 





BOARDING-SCHOOL IDEALS 


43 


lilosophy. My genuine interest was history, partly 
scause of a superior teacher, and partly because my 
ther had always insisted upon a certain amount of 
storic reading ever since he had paid me, as a little 
rl, five cents a “Life” for each Plutarch hero 0 I could 
telhgently report to him, and twenty-five cents for 
r ery volume of Irving’s “Life of Washington.” 

When we started for the long vacations, a little group 
five would vow that during the summer we would 
lad all of Motley’s “Dutch Republic” or, more am- 
Itious still, all of Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall of the 


I o 


3man Empire.” When we returned at the opening of 
hool and three of us announced we had finished the 
:ter, each became skeptical of the other two. We fell 
'on each other with a sort of rough-and-tumble exam- 


ation, in which no quarter was given or received; but 
e suspicion was finally removed that any one had 
ipped. We took for a class motto the early Saxon 
|»rd for lady,° translated into breadgiver, and we took 
our class color the poppy, because poppies grew 
long the wheat, as if Nature knew that wherever 
ire was hunger that needed food there would be pain 
it needed relief. We must have found the sentiment 
a book somewhere, but we used it so much that it 
ally seemed like an idea of our own, although of 
irse none of us had ever seen a European field, the 
[y page upon which Nature has written this particular 
ssage. 


i s 


2 o 


2 5 





44 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

That this group of ardent girls who discussed ever 
thing under the sun with such unabated inteiest, d 
not take it all out in talk, may be demonstrated by tl 
fact that one of the class who married a missionai 
s founded a very successful school in Japan for the ch 
dren of the English and Americans living there; anoth 


I 


of the class became a medical missionary to Korea, ai 
because of her successful treatment of the Queen, w-»j 
made court physician at a time when the opening w; 
o considered of importance in the diplomatic as well 
in the missionary world; still another became an ui 
usually skilled teacher of the blind; and one of them 
pioneer librarian in that early effort to bring “ books t 


the people.” | 

s Perhaps this early companionship showed me ho t 


essentially similar are the various forms of social effor l 
and curiously enough, the actual activities of a mission; 
ary school are not unlike many that are carried on in | 
Settlement situated in a foreign quarter. Certainly thi 
omost sympathetic and comprehending visitors we hav| 
ever had at Hull-House have been returned missioiy 
aries; among them two elderly ladies, who had lived fcj 
years in India and who had been homesick and be 3 
wildered since their return, declared that the lortmghji 
5 at Hull-House had been the happiest and most familia, 
they had had in America. ^ 

Of course in such an atmosphere a girl like myself, c 
serious not to say priggish tendency, did not escape 









BOARDING-SCHOOL IDEALS 45 

Concerted pressure to push her into the “missionary 
Held.” During the four years it was inevitable that 
livery sort of evangelical appeal should have been made 
ir o reach the comparatively few “unconverted” girls in 
l! ! he school. We were the subject of prayer at the daily 
'phapel exercise and the weekly prayer meeting, attend- 
%nce upon which was obligatory. 

‘‘ I was singularly unresponsive to all these forms of 
emotional appeal, although I became unspeakably em¬ 
barrassed when they were presented to me at close 
1 ange by a teacher during the “silent hour,” which we 
ll vere all required to observe every evening and which 
was never broken into, even by a member of the faculty, 
mless the errand was one of grave import. I found 
' hese occasional interviews on the part of one of the 
'nore serious young teachers, of whom I was extremely 
!1 ond, hard to endure, as was a long series of conversa- 
ions in my senior year conducted by one of the most 
1 nthusiastic members of the faculty, in which the de- 
irability of Turkey as a field for missionary labor was 
nticingly put before me. I suppose I held myself aloof 
rom all these influences, partly owing to the fact that 
ny father was not a communicant of any church, and I 
remendously admired his scrupulous morality and 
ense of honor in all matters of personal and public con¬ 
duct, and also because the little group to which I have 
eferred was much given to a sort of rationalism, doubt- 
sss founded upon an early reading of Emerson. In this 





46 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

connection, when Bronson Alcott came to lecture at the 
school, we all vied with each other for a chance to do 
him a personal service because he had been a friend of 
Emerson, and we were inexpressibly scornful of our 
s younger fellow-students who cared for him merely on 
the basis of his grandfatherly relation 0 to “Little 
Women.” I recall cleaning the clay of the unpaved 
streets off his heavy cloth overshoes in a state of ecstatic 
energy. 

o But I think in my case there were other factors as , 
well that contributed to my unresponsiveness to the , 
evangelical appeal. A curious course of reading I had 
marked out for myself in medieval history, seems to . 
have left me fascinated by an ideal of mingled learning, j 
5 piety, and physical labor, more nearly exemplified by j 
the Port Royalists 0 than by any others. 

The only moments in which I seem to have ap¬ 
proximated in my own experience to a faint realization 
of the “beauty of holiness,” as I conceived it, was each 
o Sunday morning between the hours of nine and ten, i 
when I went into the exquisitely neat room of the 
teacher of Greek and read with her from a Greek testa¬ 
ment. We did this every Sunday morning for two 
years. It was not exactly a lesson, for I never prepared 
s for it, and while I was held within reasonable bounds of 
syntax, I was allowed much more freedom in translation 
than was permitted the next morning when I read 
Homer 0 ; neither did we discuss doctrines, for although 



BOARDING-SCHOOL IDEALS 


47 


: was with this same teacher that in our junior year we 
tudied Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, committing all 
f it to memory and analyzing and reducing it to 
octrines within an inch of our lives, we never allowed 
n echo of this exercise to appear at these blessed 
unday morning readings. It was as if the disputatious 
’aul had not yet been, for we always read from the 
lospels. The regime of Rockford Seminary was still 
ery simple in the 70’s. Each student made her own 
re and kept her own room in order. Sunday morning 
r as a great clearing up day, and the sense of having 
lade immaculate my own immediate surroundings, the 
Dnsciousness of clean linen, said to be close to the con- 
;iousness of a clean conscience, always mingles in my 
lind with these early readings. I certainly bore away 
r ith me a lifelong enthusiasm for reading the Gospels 
li bulk, a whole one at a time, and an insurmountable 
istaste for having them cut up into chapter and verse, 
[r for hearing the incidents in that wonderful Life thus 
Inferred to as if it were merely a record. 

My copy of the Greek testament had been presented 
3 me by the brother of our Greek teacher, Professor 
►laisdell of Beloit College, a true scholar in “Christian 
Lthics,” as his department was called. I recall that 
i ne day in the summer after I left college — one of the 
lack days which followed the death of my father — 
his kindly scholar came to see me in order to bring 
i uch comfort as he might and to inquire how far I had 





48 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

found solace in the little book he had given me so Ion 
before. When I suddenly recall the village in which 
was born, its steeples and roofs look as they did tha 
day from the hilltop where we talked together, th 
s familiar details smoothed out and merging, as it were 
into that wide conception of the universe, which for th 
moment swallowed up my personal grief or at leas 
assuaged it with a realization that it was but a drop ii 
that “torrent of sorrow and anguish and terror whicl 
oflows under all the footsteps of man.” This realizatioi 
of sorrow as the common lot, of death as the universa 
experience, was the first comfort which my bruisec 
spirit had received. In reply to my impatience wit! 
the Christian doctrine of “resignation,” that it impliec 
s that you thought of your sorrow only in its effect upor 
you and were disloyal to the affection itself, I remembei 
how quietly the Christian scholar changed his phrase¬ 
ology, saying that sometimes consolation came to us 
better in the words of Plato, 0 and, as nearly as I can 

o remember, that was the first time I had ever heard 

£ 

Plato’s sonorous argument for the permanence of the 
excellent. 

When Professor Blaisdell returned to his college, he 
left in my hands a small copy of “The Crito.” The 
5 Greek was too hard for me, and I was speedily driven to 
Towett’s 0 translation. That old-fashioned habit of 
presenting favorite books to eager young people, al¬ 
though it degenerated into the absurdity of “friend- 








BOARDING-SCHOOL IDEALS 


49 


1 hip’s offerings,” had much to be said for it, when it 
ndicated the wellsprings of literature from which the 
lonor himself had drawn waters of healing and inspira- 
ion. 

Throughout our school years we were always keenly 5 
conscious of the growing development of Rockford 
«Seminary into a college. The opportunity for our Alma 
Hater to take her place in the new movement of full 
:ollege education for women filled us with enthusiasm, 
md it became a driving ambition with the under- io 
graduates to share in this new and glorious undertaking. 

Ne gravely decided that it was important that some 
)f the students should be ready to receive the bachelor’s 
legree the very first moment that the charter of the 
;chool should secure the right to confer it. Two of us, i s 
iherefore, took a course in mathematics, advanced be¬ 
yond anything previously given in the school, from one 
jf those early young women working for a Ph.D., who 
was temporarily teaching in Rockford that she might 
study more mathematics in Leipsic. 0 20 

My companion in all these arduous labors has since 
accomplished more than any of us in the effort to 
procure the franchise for women, for even then we all 
(took for granted the righteousness of that cause into 
which I at least had merely followed my father s con- 2 5 
viction. In the old-fashioned spirit of that cause I might 
cite the career of this companion as an illustration of 
the efficacy of higher mathematics for women, for she 






5 o TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

possesses singular ability to convince even the dense: 
legislators of their legal right to define their ow 
electorate, even when they quote against her the dusties 
of state constitutions or city charters, 
s In line with this policy of placing a woman’s colleg 
on an equality with the other colleges of the state, w 
applied for an opportunity to compete in the inter 
collegiate oratorical contest of Illinois, and we succeeded 
in having Rockford admitted as the first woman’: 
o college. When I was finally selected as the orator, I wa: 
somewhat dismayed to find that, representing not onl} 
one school but college women in general, I could nol 
resent the brutal frankness with which my oratorical 
possibilities were discussed by the enthusiastic group 
5 who would allow no personal feeling to stand in the 
way of progress, especially the progress of Woman’s 
Cause. I was told among other things that I had an 
intolerable habit of dropping my voice at the end of a 
sentence in the most feminine, apologetic, and even 
o deprecatory manner which would probably lose Woman 
the first place. 

Woman certainly did lose the first place and stood 
fifth, exactly in the dreary middle, but the ignominious 
position may not have been solely due to bad manner- 
5 isms, for a prior place was easily accorded to William 
Jennings Bryan, 0 who not only thrilled his auditors 
with an almost prophetic anticipation of the cross of 
gold, but with a moral earnestness which we had mis- 








BOARDING-SCHOOL IDEALS 


is 


5i 

^takenly assumed would be the unique possession of the 
y feminine orator. 

I so heartily concurred with the decision of the judges 
af the contest that it was with a care-free mind that I 
g induced my colleague and alternate to remain long 
enough in “The Athens of Illinois,” 0 in which the 
r successful college was situated, to visit the state institu¬ 
tions, one for the Blind and one for the Deaf and Dumb. 
Doctor Gillette was at that time head of the latter 
i institution; his scholarly explanation of the method of 
5 teaching, his concern for his charges, this sudden demon¬ 
stration of the care the state bestowed upon its most 
unfortunate children, filled me with grave speculations 
in which the first, the fifth, or the ninth place in an 
e oratorical contest seemed of little moment. 

However, this brief delay between our field of Water- 
1 loo° and our arrival at our aspiring college turned out 
to be most unfortunate, for we found the ardent group 
not only exhausted by the premature preparations for 
the return of a successful orator, but naturally much 
irritated as they contemplated their garlands drooping 
disconsolately in tubs and bowls of water. They did 
not fail to make me realize that I had dealt the cause of 
woman’s advancement a staggering blow, and all my 
explanations of the fifth place were haughtily considered 
insufficient before that golden Bar of Youth, so ab¬ 
surdly inflexible! 

To return to my last year at school, it was inevitable 








52 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


that the pressure toward religious profession should in¬ 
crease as graduating day approached. So curious, how¬ 
ever, are the paths of moral development that several 
times during subsequent experiences have I felt that 
s this passive resistance of mine, this clinging to an in¬ 
dividual conviction, was the best moral training I re¬ 
ceived at Rockford College. During the first decade of 
Hull-House, it was felt by propagandists of divers 
social theories that the new Settlement would be a fine 
o coign of vantage from which to propagate social faiths, 
and that a mere preliminary step would be the con¬ 
version of the founders; hence I have been reasoned 
with hours at a time, and I recall at least three oc¬ 
casions when this was followed by actual prayer. In 
5 the first instance, the honest exhorter who fell upon his 
knees before my astonished eyes, was an advocate of 
single tax upon land values. He begged, in that indirect 
phraseology which is deemed appropriate for prayer, 
that“the sister might see the beneficent results it would 
o bring to the poor who live in the awful congested dis¬ 
tricts around this very house.” 

The early socialists used every method of attack, — a 
favorite one being the statement, doubtless sometimes 
honestly made, that I really was a socialist, but “too 
5 much of a coward to say so.” I remember one socialist 
who habitually opened a very telling address he was in 
the habit of giving upon the street corners, by holding 
me up as an awful example to his fellow-socialists, as 









BOARDING-SCHOOL IDEALS 


53 


one of their number “who had been caught in the toils 
! )f capitalism.” He always added as a final clinching of 
:he statement, that he knew what he was talking about 
oecause he was a member of the Hull-House Men’s 
31 ub. When I ventured to say to him that not all of 
:he thousands of people who belong to a class or club 
it Hull-House could possibly know my personal opin- 
ons, and to mildly inquire upon what he founded his 
issertions, he triumphantly replied that I had once 
idmitted to him that I had read Sombart and Loria,° 
md that any one of sound mind must see the inevitable 
conclusions of such master reasonings. 

I could multiply these two instances a hundred-fold, 
md possibly nothing aided me to stand on my own 
eet and to select what seemed reasonable from this 
vilderness of dogma, so much as my early encounter 
vith genuine zeal and affectionate solicitude, associated 
vith what I could not accept as the whole truth. 


I do not wish to take callow writing too seriously, 
out I reproduce from an oratorical contest the following 
oit of premature pragmatism, doubtless due much more 
:o temperament than to perception, because I am still 
eady to subscribe to it, although the grandiloquent 
;tyle is, I hope, a thing of the past: “Those who believe 
:hat Justice is but a poetical longing within us, the 
enthusiast who thinks it will come in the form of a 
nillennium, those who see it established by the strong 
irm of a hero, are not those who have comprehended 








54 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

the vast truths of life. The actual Justice must com 
by trained intelligence, by broadened sympathie , 
toward the individual man or woman who crosses ou 
path; one item added to another is the only method b 
5 which to build up a conception lofty enough to be o 
use in the world.” 

This schoolgirl receipt has been tested in many late 
experiences, the most dramatic of which came when 
was called upon by a manufacturing company to act a: 
0 one of three arbitrators in a perplexing struggle betweer 
themselves, a group of trade-unionists, and a non-unior 
employee of their establishment. The non-union man| 
who was the cause of the difficulty had ten years before 
sided with his employers in a prolonged strike and had 
5 bitterly fought the union. He had been so badly in¬ 
jured at that time, that in spite of long months of 
hospital care he had never afterward been able to do a 
full d ay’s work, although his employers had retained 
him for a decade at full pay in recognition of his loyalty. 
oAt the end of ten years the once defeated union was 
strong enough to enforce its demands for a union shop, 
and in spite of the distaste of the firm for the arrange¬ 
ment, no obstacle to harmonious relations with the 
union remained but the refusal of the trade-unionists 
sto receive as one of their members the old crippled 
employee, whose spirit was broken at last and who was 
now willing to join the union and to stand with his old 
enemies for the sake of retaining his place. 










BOARDING-SCHOOL IDEALS 


55 


15 But the union men would not receive “a traitor,” 
e he firm flatly refused to dismiss so faithful an employee, 
Ae busy season was upon them and every one con- 
'ferned had finally agreed to abide without appeal by 
} |ie decision of the three arbitrators. The chairman of 
ur little arbitration committee, a venerable judge, 
:r uickly demonstrated that it was impossible to collect 
L*ustworthy evidence in regard to the events already 
4n years old which lay at the bottom of this bitterness, 

1 nd we soon therefore ceased to interview the conflicting 
witnesses; the second member of the committee sternly 
ade the men remember that the most ancient Hebraic 
uthority gave no sanction for holding even a just re- 
entment for more than seven years, and at last we all 
ettled down to that wearisome effort to secure the 
mer consent of all concerned, upon which alone the 
mystery of justice” as Maeterlinck 0 has told us, 

| ltimately depends. I am not quite sure that in the end 
le administered justice, but certainly employers, 
rades-unionists, and arbitrators were all convinced that 
iistice will have to be established in industrial affairs 
dth the same care and patience which has been neces- 
ary for centuries in order to institute it in men’s civic 
elationships, although as the judge remarked the 
earch must be conducted without much help from 
♦recedent. The conviction remained with me, that 
lowever long a time might be required to establish 
ustice in the new relationships of our raw industrialism. 




56 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

it would never be stable until it had received the sar- 
tion of those upon whom the present situation press? 
so harshly. 

Towards the end of our four years’ course we debatd 
s much as to what we were to be, and long before the ei 
of my school days it was quite settled in my mind th 
I should study medicine and ‘‘live with the poor.” Th 
conclusion of course was the result of many thiag 
perhaps epitomized in my graduating essay on “ Cassai 
odra”° and her tragic fate “always to be in the righ 
and always to be disbelieved and rejected.” 

Ihis state of affairs, it may readily be guessed, th 
essay held to be an example of the feminine trait c 
mind called intuition, “an accurate perception of Trut 
s and Justice, which rests contented in itself and wil 
make no effort to confirm itself or to organize througl 
existing knowledge.” The essay then proceeds — I an 
forced to admit, with overmuch conviction — with th< 
statement that woman can only “grow accurate ant 
o intelligible by the thorough study of at least one brand 
of physical science, for only with eyes thus accustomec 
to the search for truth can she detect all self-deceit and 
fancy in herself and learn to express herself without 
dogmatism.” So much for the first part of the thesis, 
sHaving thus “gained accuracy, would woman bring 
this force to bear throughout morals and justice, then 
she must find in active labor the promptings and 
inspirations that come from growing insight.” I was 











BOARDING-SCHOOL IDEALS 


57 


juite certain that by following these directions care- 


5 S Lilly, in the end the contemporary woman would find 
‘her faculties clear and acute from the study of science, 
temd her hand upon the magnetic chain of humanity. 

This veneration for science portrayed in my final 
^ssay was doubtless the result of the statements the 
ijiextbooks were then making of what was called the 
„ theory of evolution, the acceptance of which even thirty 
ayears after the publication of Darwin’s “Origin of 
rSpecies” 0 had about it a touch of intellectual adventure. 
We knew, for instance, that our science teacher had 
( accepted this theory, but we had a strong suspicion that 
j,the teacher of Butler’s “Analogy” 0 had not. We chafed 
j,at the meagerness of the college library in this direction, 
j and I used to bring back in my handbag books belong¬ 
ing to an advanced brother-in-law who had studied 
medicine in Germany and who therefore was quite 
emancipated. The first gift I made when I came into 
possession of my small estate the year after I left school, 
was a thousand dollars to the library of Rockford 
College, with the stipulation that it be spent for scien¬ 
tific books. In the long vacations I pressed plants, 
stuffed birds, and pounded rocks in some vague belief 
that I was approximating the new method, and yet 
when my stepbrother, who was becoming a real scientist, 
tried to carry me along with him into the merest out¬ 
skirts of the methods of research, it at once became 
evident that I had no aptitude and was unable to follow 


I o 


I 5 








58 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

intelligently Darwin’s careful observations on the eartl | 
worm. I made an heroic effort, although candor con 
pels me to state that I never would have finished if 
had not been pulled and pushed by my really arden 
s companion, who in addition to a multitude of earth 
worms and a fine microscope, possessed untiring tac j 
with one of flagging zeal. 

As our boarding-school days neared the end, in thV 
consciousness of approaching separation we vowec 
i o eternal allegiance to our early ideals,” and promisee 
each other we would “never abandon them without 
conscious justification,” and we often warned each 
other of “the perils of self-tradition.” 

We believed, in our sublime self-conceit, that the 
15 difficulty of life would he solely in the direction of 
losing these precious, ideals of ours, of failing to follow 
the way of martyrdom and high purpose we had marked 
out for ourselves, and we had no notion of the obscure 
paths of tolerance, just allowance, and self-blame 
20 wherein, if we held our minds open, we might learn 
something of the mystery and complexity of life’s 
purposes. 

The year after I had left college I came back, with a 
classmate, to receive the degree we had so eagerly 
2 5 anticipated. Two of the graduating class were also 
ready and four of us were dubbed B.A. on the very day 
that Rockford Seminary was declared a college in the 
midst of tumultuous anticipations. Having had a year 









BOARDING-SCHOOL IDEALS 59 

• 

1 outside of college walls in that trying land between 
vague hope and definite attainment, I had become very 
much sobered in my desire for a degree, and was al¬ 
ready beginning to emerge from that rose-colored mist 
.with which the dream of youth so readily envelops the 
-future. 

Whatever may have been the perils of self-tradition, 
fl certainly did not escape them, for it required eight 
years — from the time I left Rockford in the summer 
of 1881 until Hull-House was opened in the autumn of 
jgg^ — to formulate my convictions even in the least 
satisfactory manner, much less to reduce them to a 
plan for action. During most of that time I was ab¬ 
solutely at sea so far as any moral purpose was con¬ 
cerned, clinging only to the desire to live in a really 
living world and.refusing to be content with a shadowy 
intellectual or aesthetic reflection of it. 




CHAPTER IV 

The Snare of Preparation 

The winter after I left school was spent in the 
Woman’s Medical College of Philadelphia, but the 
development of the spinal difficulty which had shad 
owed me from childhood forced me into Dr. Weir 
s Mitchell s hospital for the late spring, and the next 
winter I was literally bound to a bed in my sister’s 
house for six months. In spite of its tedium, the long 
winter had its mitigations, for after the first few weeks 
I was able to read with a luxurious consciousness of 
3 leisure, and I remember opening the first volume of 
Carlyle’s “Frederick the Great” with a lively sense of 
gratitude that it was not Gray’s “Anatomy ,” 0 having 
found, like many another, that general culture is a 
much easier undertaking than professional study. The 
long illness inevitably put aside the immediate prose¬ 
cution of a medical course, and although I had passed 
my examinations creditably enough in the required 
subjects for the first year, I was very glad to have a 
physician s sanction for giving up clinics and dissecting 
rooms and to follow his prescription of spending the 
next two years in Europe. 

Before I returned to America I had discovered that 

60 













THE SNARE OF PREPARATION 


61 


here were other genuine reasons for living among the 
>oor than that of practicing medicine upon them, and 
ay brief foray into the profession was never resumed. 

The long illness left me in a state of nervous ex- 
laustion with which I struggled for years, traces of it 5 
e emaining long after Hull-House was opened in 1889. 
e it the best it allowed me but a limited amount of 
• nergy, so that doubtless there was much nervous de¬ 
pression at the foundation of the spiritual struggles 
t vdfich this chapter is forced to record. However, it 10 
s ould not have been all due to my health, for as my 
I vise little notebook sententiously remarked, “In his 
iwn way each man must struggle, lest the moral law 
)ecome a far-off abstraction utterly separated from his 
ictive life.” is 

It would, of course, be impossible to remember that 
ome of these struggles ever took place at all, were it 
lot for these selfsame notebooks, in which, however, I 
10 longer wrote in moments of high resolve, but judging 
rom the internal evidence afforded by the books them- 20 
;elves, only in moments of deep depression when over- 
vhelmed by a sense of failure. 

One of the most poignant of these experiences, which 
iccurred during the first few months after our landing 
ipon the other side of the Atlantic, was on a Saturday 25 
fight, when I received an ineradicable impression of the 
vretchedness of East London, and also saw for the first 
fine the overcrowded quarters of a great city at mid- 





62 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

night. A small party of tourists were taken to the E2; 
End° by a city missionary to witness the Saturday nig : 
sale of decaying vegetables and fruit, which, owing J 
the Sunday laws in London, could not be sold uni 
5 Monday, and, as they were beyond safe keeping, we 
disposed of at auction as late as possible on Saturdii 
night. On Mile End Road,° from the top of an omnibi 
which paused at the end of a dingy street lighted fcj 
only occasional flares of gas, we saw two huge masses < 
o ill-clad people clamoring around two hucksters’ cart 
They were bidding their farthings and ha’pennies for 
vegetable held up by the auctioneer, which he at las 
scornfully flung, with a gibe for its cheapness, to th 
successful bidder. In the momentary pause only on 
sman detached himself from the groups. He had bidde 
in a cabbage, and when it struck his hand, he instant! 
sat down on the curb, tore it with his teeth, and hastil; 
devoured it, unwashed and uncooked as it was. H 
and his fellows were types of the “submerged tenth,’ 
oas our missionary guide told us, with some little satis 
faction in the then new phrase, and he further addec 
that so many of them could scarcely be seen in one spo 
save at this Saturday night auction, the desire for cheaj 
food being apparently the one thing which could mov< 
5 them simultaneously. They were huddled into ill 
fitting, cast-oflF clothing, the ragged finery which om 
sees only in East London. Their pale faces wen 
dominated by that most unlovely of human expressions. 




THE SNARE OF PREPARATION 63 

jie cunning and shrewdness of the bargain-hunter who 
arves if he cannot make a successful trade, and yet 
ne final impression was not of ragged, tawdry clothing 
or of pinched and sallow faces, but of myriads of 
ands, empty, pathetic, nerveless, and workworn, show- s 
lg white in the uncertain light of the street, and clutch- 
lg forward for food which was already unfit to eat. 
r Perhaps nothing is so fraught with significance as the 
uman hand, this oldest tool with which man has dug 
is way from savagery, and with which he is constantly 10 
roping forward. I have never since been able to see a 
umber of hands held upward, even when they are 
loving rhythmically in a calisthenic exercise, or when 
ley belong to a class of chubby children who wave 
iem in eager response to a teacher’s query, without a 15 
irtain revival of this memory, a clutching at the heart 
rminiscent of the despair and resentment which seized 
le then. 

For the following weeks I went about London almost 
urtively, afraid to look down narrow streets and alleys 20 
‘St they disclose again this hideous human need and 
iffering. I carried with me for days at a time that 
urious surprise we experience when we first come back 
ito the streets after days given over to sorrow and 
eath; we are bewildered that the world should be going 2 5 
n as usual and unable to determine which is real, the 
mer pang or the outward seeming. In time all huge 
ondon came to seem unreal save the poverty in its 



64 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

East End. During the following two years on tl 
continent, while I was irresistibly drawn to the poor 
quarters of each city, nothing among the beggars ■ 
South Italy nor among the saltminers of Austria carrie 
s with it the same conviction of human wretchedne: 
which was conveyed by this momentary glimpse of a 
East London street. It was, of course, a most fran 
mentary and lurid view of the poverty of East London 
and quite unfair. I should have been shown either Us 
oor more, for I went away with no notion of the hur 
dreds of men and women who had gallantly identifie 
their fortunes with these empty-handed people, an 
who, in church and chapel, “relief works,” and chari 
ties, were at least making an effort towards its mitiga 
s tion. 

Our visit was made in November, 1883, the very yea 
when the Pall Mall Gazette exposure 0 started “Th 
Bitter Cry of Outcast London,” and the conscience o 
England was stirred as never before over this joyles. 
ocity in the East End of its capital. Even then, vigorous 
and drastic plans were being discussed, and a splendic 
program of municipal reforms was already dimly out¬ 
lined. Of all these, however, I had heard nothing but 
the vaguest rumor. 

5 No comfort came to me then from any source, and 
the painful impression was increased because at the 
very moment ol looking down the East London street 
from the top of the omnibus, I had been sharply and 











THE SNARE OF PREPARATION 65 


linfully reminded of “The Vision of Sudden Death” 
hich had confronted De Quincey one summer’s night 
he was being driven through rural England on a high 
ail coach. Two absorbed lovers suddenly appear be- 
/een the narrow, blossoming hedgerows in the direct 
ith of the huge vehicle which is sure to crush them to 
leir death. De Quincey tries to send them a warning 
tout, but finds himself unable to make a sound be- 
tuse his mind is hopelessly entangled in an endeavor 
recall the exact lines from the “ Iliad” which describe 
te great cry with which Achilles alarmed all Asia 
ilitant. Only after his memory responds is his will re- 
ased from its momentary paralysis, and he rides on 
rough the fragrant night with the horror of the es- 
iped calamity thick upon him, but he also bears with 
m the consciousness that he had given himself over so 
any years to classic learning — that when suddenly 
died upon for a quick decision in the world of life and 
hath, he had been able to act only through a literary 
iggestion. 

This is what we were all doing, lumbering our minds 
ith literature that only served to cloud the really vital 
tuation spread before our eyes. It seemed to me too 
reposterous that in my first view of the horror of East 
ondon I should have recalled De Quincey’s literary 
Ascription of the literary suggestion which had once 
aralyzed him. In my disgust it all appeared a hateful, 
icious circle which even the apostles of culture them- 








66 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


rn 


i 


selves admitted, for had not one of the greatest amo 
the moderns plainly said that “conduct, and 
culture, is three fourths of human life”? 

For two years in the midst of my distress over t 
5 poverty which, thus suddenly driven into my co 
sciousness, had become to me the “Weltschmerz, 
there was mingled a sense of futility, of misdirect a 
energy, the belief that the pursuit of cultivation wouj 
not in the end bring either solace or relief. I gradual! 
o reached a conviction that the first generation of collejj 
women had taken their learning too quickly, had d 
parted too suddenly from the active, emotional life It 
by their grandmothers and great-grandmothers; th; 
the contemporary education of young women hs 
s developed too exclusively the power of acquiring know 
edge and of merely receiving impressions; that sorm 
where in the process of “being educated” they had lo; 
that simple and almost automatic response to th 
human appeal, that old healthful reaction resulting i 
o activity from the mere presence of suffering or of hel{ 
lessness; that they are so sheltered and pampered the 
have no chance even to make “the great refusal.” 

In the German and French pensions ,° which twenty 
five years ago were crowded with American mothers an 
s their daughters who had crossed the seas in search o 
culture, one often found the mother making real con 
nection with the life about her, using her inadequat 
German with great fluency, gayly measuring thi 










THE SNARE OF PREPARATION 67 

lormous sheets or exchanging recipes with the German 
ausfrau, 0 visiting impartially the nearest kindergarten 
id market, making an atmosphere of her own, hearty 
lid genuine as far as it went, in the house and on the 
jreet. On the other hand, her daughter was critical 
id uncertain of her linguistic acquirements, and only 
ease when in the familiar receptive attitude afforded 
7 the art gallery and the opera house. In the latter 
e was swayed and moved, appreciative of the power 
id charm of the music, intelligent as to the legend and 
hetry of the plot, finding use for her trained and 
weloped powers as she sat “being cultivated” in the 
miliar atmosphere of the classroom which had, as it 
iere, become sublimated and romanticized. 

I remember a happy busy mother who, complacent 
ith the knowledge that her daughter daily devoted 
ur hours to her music, looked up from her knitting to 
; y, “ If I had had your opportunities when I was young, 
y dear, I should have been a very happy girl. I 
ways had musical talent, but such training as I had, 
olish little songs and waltzes and not time for half an 
iur’s practice a day.” 

The mother did not dream of the sting her words left 
id that the sensitive girl appreciated only too well that 
;r opportunities were fine and unusual, but she also 
lew that in spite of some facility and much good 
aching she had no genuine talent and never would 
lfill the expectations of her friends. She looked back 









68 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


upon her mother’s girlhood with positive envy becaie 
it was so full of happy industry and extenuating c- 
stacles, with undisturbed opportunity to believe tht 
her talents were unusual. The girl looked wistfully t 
5 her mother, but had not the courage to cry out wh: 
was in her heart: “ I might believe I had unusual tale: 
if I did not know what good music was; I might enjr 
half an hour’s practice a day if I were busy and happ 
the rest of the time. You do not know what life mea 
owhen all the difficulties are removed! I am simp 
smothered and sickened with advantages. It is lil 
eating a sweet dessert the first thing in the morning. 

This, then, was the difficulty, this sweet dessert»; 
the morning and the assumption that the sheltered 
5 educated girl has nothing to do with the bitter povert 
and the social maladjustment which is all about he 
and which, after all, cannot be concealed, for it breal 
through poetry and literature in a burning tide whic 
overwhelms her; it peers at her in the form of heav} 
o laden market women and underpaid street laborer 
gibing her with a sense of her uselessness. 

I recall one snowy morning in Saxe-Coburg, lookin 
from the window of our little hotel upon the tow 
square, that we saw crossing and recrossing it a singl 
5 file of women with semicircular heavy wooden tank 
fastened upon their backs. They were carrying in thi 
primitive fashion to a remote cooling room these tank 
filled with a hot brew incident to one stage of bee 









THE SNARE OF PREPARATION 69 

aking. The women were bent forward, not only under 
e weight which they were bearing, but because the 
nks were so high that it would have been impossible 
r them to have lifted their heads. Their faces and 
mds, reddened in the cold morning air, showed clearly 
e white scars where they had previously been scalded 
t the hot stuff which splashed if they stumbled ever so 
tie on their way. Stung into action by one of those 
dden indignations against cruel conditions which at 
mes fill the young with unexpected energy, I found 
yself across the square, in company with mine host, 
terviewing the phlegmatic owner of the brewery who 
ceived us with exasperating indifference, or rather re¬ 
lived me 

soon as the great magnate of the town began to 
>eak. I went back to a breakfast for which I had lost 
y appetite, as I had for Gray’s “Life of Prince Albert” 0 
id his wonderful tutor, Baron Stockmar, which I had 
^en reading late the night before. The book had lost 
3 fascination; how could a good man, feeling so keenly 
s obligation “to make princely the mind of his prince,” 
nore such conditions of life for the multitude of 
imble, hard-working folk? We were spending two 
onths in Dresden 0 that winter, given over to much 
ading of “The History of Art” and to much visiting 
its art gallery and opera house, and after such an 
perience I would invariably suffer a moral revulsion 
;ainst this feverish search after culture. It was doubt- 


, for the innkeeper mysteriously slunk away 








70 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

less in such moods that I founded my admiration 
Albrecht Diirer, 0 taking his wonderful pictures, he 
ever, in the most unorthodox manner, merely as hum 
documents. I was chiefly appealed to by his unwillii 
s ness to lend himself to a smooth and cultivated view 
life, by his determination to record its frustrations a 
even the hideous forms which darken the day for c 
human imagination and to ignore no human complic 
tions. I believed that his canvases intimated the comi 
o religious and social changes of the Reformation and t 
peasants’ wars, 0 that they were surcharged with pi 
for the downtrodden, that his sad knights, grave 
standing guard, were longing to avert that shedding 
blood which is sure to occur when men forget how cot 
5 plicated life is and insist upon reducing it to logic 
dogmas. 

The largest sum of money that I ever ventured 
spend in Europe was for an engraving of his “£ 
Hubert,” the background of which was said to be fro 
oan original Diirer plate. There is little doubt, I a 
afraid, that the background as well as the figures “we 
put in at a later date,” but the purchase at lea 
registered the high-water mark of my enthusiasm. 

The wonder and beauty of Italy later brought healir 
s and some relief to the paralyzing sense of the futility 
all artistic and intellectual effort when disconnectc 
from the ultimate test of the conduct it inspired. T 1 
serene and soothing touch of history also aroused ol 










IMS . 

THE SNARE OF PREPARATION 71 

I ithusiasms, although some of their manifestations 
ere such as one smiles over more easily in retrospection 
an at the moment. I fancy that it was no smiling 
atter to several people in our party, whom I induced 
walk for three miles in the hot sunshine beating down 5 
)on the Roman Campagna, 0 that we might enter the 
iternal City on foot through the Porta del Popolo, 0 as 
lgrims had done for centuries. To be sure, we had 
ally entered Rome the night before, but the railroad 
ation and the hotel might have been anywhere else, 1 o 
id we had been driven beyond the walls after break- 
st and stranded at the very spot where the pilgrims 
ways said “Ecco Roma,”° as they caught the first 
impse of St. Peter’s dome. This melodramatic en- 
ance into Rome, or rather pretended entrance, was 1 5 
le prelude to days of enchantment, and I returned to 
nrope two years later in order to spend a winter there 
;id to carry out a great desire to systematically study 
ie Catacombs. 0 In spite of my distrust of “ advan¬ 
ces” I was apparently not yet so cured but that I 20 
'anted more of them. 

The two years which elapsed before I again found 
syself in Europe brought their inevitable changes, 
lamily arrangements had so come about that I had 
i ent three or four months of each of the intervening 2 5 
enters in Baltimore, where I seemed to have reached 
1 e nadir of my nervous depression and sense of mal- 
djustment, in spite of my interest in the fascinating 








72 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


lectures given there by Lanciani 0 of Rome, ant 


definite course of reading under the guidance of a Jo 

T T i i ^ 


i o 


i 5 


Hopkins lecturer upon the United Italy movement, 
the latter I naturally encountered the influence 
Mazzini, which was a source of great comfort to r 
although perhaps I went too suddenly from a c< 
templation of his wonderful ethical and philosophi 
appeal to the workingmen of Italy, directly to 1 
lecture rooms at Johns Hopkins University, for I v 
ceitainly much disillusioned at this time as to t 
effect of intellectual pursuits upon moral developme 
The summers were spent in the old home in northe 
Illinois, and one Sunday morning I received the rite 
baptism and became a member of the Presbyteri 
church in the village. At this time there was certain 
no outside pressure pushing me towards such a 
cision, and at tw^enty-five one does not ordinarily ta 
such a step from a mere desire to conform. While I w 


is 


not conscious oi any emotional ^conversion,” I toe 


2 O 


upon myself the outward expressions of the religioi 


life with all humility and sincerity. It was doubtle: 
true that I was 


“Weary of myself and sick of asking 
What I am and what I ought to be,” 

2 5 and that various cherished safeguards and claims t 
self-dependence had been broken into by many piteou 
failures. But certainly I had been brought to the con 

















THE SNARE OF PREPARATION 73 

'usion that “sincerely to give up one’s conceit or hope 
'being good in one’s own right is the only door to the 
niverse’s deeper reaches.” Perhaps the young clergy- 
an recognized this as the test of the Christian temper; 
any rate he required little assent to dogma or miracle, 5 
id assured me that while both the ministry and the 
ficers of his church were obliged to subscribe to 
ictrines of well-known severity, the faith required of 
ie laity was almost early Christian in its simplicity. I 
as conscious of no change from my childish accept- 10 
ice of the teachings of the Gospels, but at this moment 
mething persuasive within made me long for an out- 
ard symbol of fellowship, some bond of peace, some 
essed spot where unity of spirit might claim right of 
ay over all differences. There was also growing within 15 
e an almost passionate devotion to the ideals of 
:mocracy, and when in all history had these ideals been 
thrillingly expressed as when the faith of the fisher- 
an and the slave had been boldly opposed to the ac- 
pted moral belief that the well-being of a privileged 20 
w might justly be built upon the ignorance and sacri- 
ie of the many? Who was I, with my dreams of 
uiversal fellowship, that I did not identify myself 
i th the institutional statement of this belief, as it 
•3od in the little village in which I was born, and with- 2 5 
: t which testimony in each remote hamlet of Christen- 
:>m it would be so easy for the world to slip back into 
le doctrines of selection and aristocracy? 





74 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

In one of the intervening summers between th 




f 


European journeys I visited a western state whenp 
had formerly invested a sum of money in mortgag 
I was much horrified by the wretched conditions amc 
5 the farmers, which had resulted from a long period 
drought, and one forlorn picture was fairly burned ir 
my mind. A number of starved hogs — collateral foi 
promissory note — were huddled into an open p( 
Their backs were humped in a curious, camel-li 
o fashion, and they were devouring one of their o> 
number, the latest victim of absolute starvation 
possibly merely the one least able to defend bums 1 
against their voracious hunger. Ihe farmer’s w 
looked on indifferently, a picture of despair as she sto< 
s in the door of the bare, crude house, and the two ch 
dren behind her, whom she vainly tried to keep,out 
sight, continually thrust forward their faces almo 
covered by masses of coarse, sunburned hair, and the 
little bare feet so black, so hard, the great cracks 
o filled with dust that they looked like flattened hoo 
The children could not be compared to anything 
joyous as satyrs, although they appeared but ha 
human. It seemed to me quite impossible to recei 
interest from mortgages placed upon farms which mig 
5 at any season be reduced to such conditions, and wi 
great inconvenience to my agent and doubtless wi 
hardship to the farmers, as speedily as possible I wit 
jlrew all my investment. But something had to b 













75 


THE SNARE OF PREPARATION 


Ijone with the money, and in my reaction against tin¬ 
men horrors I bought a farm near my native village and 


Tt 


igiIso a flock of innocent-looking sheep. My partner in 
ie enterprise had not chosen the shepherd’s lot as a 
grmanent occupation, but hoped to speedily finish his 
fllege course upon half the proceeds of our venture, 
his pastoral enterprise still seems to me to have been 
isentially sound, both economically and morally, but 
li^rhaps one partner depended too much upon the 
^peccability of her motives and the other found him- 
flf too preoccupied with study to know that it is not a 
al kindness to bed a sheepfold with straw, for certainly 
vjie venture ended in a spectacle scarcely less harrowing 
#an the memory it was designed to obliterate. At 
h|ast the sight of two hundred sheep with four rotting 


oofs each, was not reassuring to one whose conscience 
iaved economic peace. A fortunate series of sales of 
utton, wool, and farm enabled the partners to end the 
jiterprise without loss, and they passed on, one to 

1 fllege and the other to Europe, if not wiser, certainly 
idder for the experience. 

j It was during this second journey to Europe that I 
:tended a meeting of the London match girls who were 
l strike and who met daily under the leadership of 
ell-knoWn labor men of London. The low wages that 
ere reported at the meetings, the phossy jaw° which 
as described and occasionally exhibited, the appear- 
ice of the girls themselves I did not, curiously enough, 








76 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

in any wise connect with what was called the lab 
movement, nor did I understand the efforts of t 
London trades-unionists, concerning whom I held t 
vaguest notions. But of course this impression 
shuman misery was added to the others which were ; 
ready making me so wretched. I think that up to tl 
time I was still filled with the sense which Wei 
describes in one of his young characters, that som 
where in Church or State are a body of authoritati 
o people who will put things to rights as soon as th 
really know what is wrong. Such a young person pi 
sistently believes that behind all suffering, behind s 
and want, must lie redeeming magnanimity. He m; 
imagine the world to be tragic and terrible, but it nev 
5 for an instant occurs to him that it may be contemptifc 
or squalid or self-seeking. Apparently I looked upon tl 
efforts of the trades-unionists as I did upon those 
Frederic Harrison and the Positivists 0 whom I hea 
the next Sunday in Newton Hall, as a manifestation 
o“loyalty to humanity” and an attempt to aid in 
progress. I was enormously interested in the Positivi 
during these European years; I imagined that th 
philosophical conception of man’s religious develo 
ment might include all expressions of that for which 
5 many ages of men have struggled and aspired. I vagu 
ly hoped for this universal comity when I stood 
Stonehenge, 0 on the Acropolis 0 in Athens, or in tl 
Sistine Chapel 0 in the Vatican. But never did I so d 











THE SNARE OE PREPARATION 77 


• e it as in the cathedrals of Winchester, 0 Notre Dame,° 
niens.° One winter’s day I traveled from Munich to 
I m° because I imagined from what the art books said 
at the cathedral hoarded a medieval statement of the 
>sitivists’ final synthesis, prefiguring their conception 
Supreme Humanity.” 


(< 


In this I was not altogether disappointed. The re- 
ious history carved on the choir stalls at Ulm con¬ 
ned Greek philosophers as well as Hebrew prophets, 
d among the disciples and saints stood the discoverer 
music and a builder of pagan temples. Even then I 
is startled, forgetting for the moment the religious 
/olutions of south Germany, to catch sight of a 
ndow showing Luther as he affixed his thesis 0 on the 
or at Wittenberg, the picture shining clear in the 
idst of the older glass of saint and symbol. 

My smug notebook states that all this was an ad- 
ission that ’‘the saints but embodied fine action,” 
id it proceeds at some length to set forth my hope for 
[cathedral of humanity,” which should be “capacious 
ough to house a fellowship of common purpose,” and 
iich should be “beautiful enough to persuade men to 
Id fast to the vision of human solidarity.” It is quite 
[possible for me to reproduce this experience at Ulm 
[less I quote pages more from the notebook in which 
leem to have written half the night, in a fever of com- 
fition cast in ill-digested phrases from Comte.° It 
ibtless reflected also something of the faith of the 






78 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

Old Catholics, a charming group of whom I had recei 1 
met in Stuttgart, and the same mood is easily trace'ii 
my early hopes for the Settlement that it should uit 
in the fellowship of the deed those of widely diffeiij 
s religious beliefs. 

The beginning of 1887 found our little party of tH 
in very picturesque lodgings in Rome, and settled i :| 
a certain student’s routine. But my study of the CY 
combs was brought to an abrupt end in a fortnight 
o a severe attack of sciatic rheumatism, which kept 1 
in Rome with a trained nurse during many weeks, £ 
later sent me to the Riviera 0 to lead an invalid’s 
once more. Although my Catacomb lore thus remair 
hopelessly superficial, it seemed to me a sufficient bq 
5 for a course of six lectures which I timidly offered t< 
Deaconess’s Training School 0 during my first winter 
Chicago, upon the simple ground that this early int 
pretation of Christianity is the one which should 
presented to the poor, urging that the primitive chui 
o was composed of the poor and that it was they who to 
the wonderful news to the more prosperous Romai| 
1 he open-minded head of the school gladly accepted t 
lectures, arranging that the course should be given ea 
spring to her graduating class of Home and Forei 
5 Missionaries, and at the end of the third year she i 
vited me to become one of the trustees of the school, 
accepted and attended one meeting of the board, b 
never another, because some of the older members o 



79 


THE SNARE OF PREPARATION 

1 cted to my membership on the ground that “no re- 
i( ;ious instruction was given at Hull-House.” I re- 
1 ember my sympathy for the embarrassment in which 
1 e head of the school was placed, but if I needed com- 
rt, a bit of it came to me on my way home from the 
^ ustees’ meeting when an Italian laborer paid my street 
1 r fare, according to the custom of our simpler neigh- 
brs. Upon my inquiry of the conductor as to whom I 
as indebted for the little courtesy, he replied roughly 
lough, “I cannot tell one dago from another when 
a ey are in a gang, but sure, any one of them would do 
‘ for you as quick as they would for the Sisters.” 

1 It is hard to tell just when the very simple plan 
a bich afterward developed into the Settlement began 
1 form itself in my mind. It may have been even he¬ 
re I went to Europe for the second time, but I gradu- 
Ty became convinced that it would be a good thing to 
nt a house in a part of the city where many primitive 
id actual needs are found, in which young women who 

I id been given over too exclusively to study, might re- 
ore a balance of activity along traditional lines and 
arn of life from life itself; where they might try out 
•me of the things they had been taught and put truth 
it “the ultimate test of the conduct it dictates or in¬ 
ures.” I do not remember to have mentioned this 
an to any one until we reached Madrid in April, 1888. 
We had been to see a bull fight rendered in the most 
Magnificent Spanish style, where greatly to my surprise 




8o TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


and horror, I found that I had seen, with comparatii 
indifference, five bulls and many more horses killel 
The sense that this was the last survival of all t: 
glories of the amphitheater, the illusion that the ridt;i 
son the caparisoned horses might have been knights 
a tournament, or the matadore a slightly armed gladi 
tor facing his martyrdom, and all the rest of the obscu 
yet vivid associations of an historic survival, had carri< 
me beyond the endurance of any of the rest of the part 
ol finally met them in the foyer, stern and pale with di 
approval of my brutal endurance, and but partially r 
covered from the faintness and disgust which t! 
spectacle itself had produced upon them. I had no d 
fense to offer to their reproaches save that I had nc 
s thought much about the bloodshed; but in the evenir 
the natural and inevitable reaction came, and in dee 
chagrin I felt myself tried and condemned, not only b 
this disgusting experience but by the entire mor; 
situation which it revealed. It was suddenly mad 
o quite clear to me that I was lulling my conscience by 
dreamer’s scheme, that a mere paper reform had becom 
a defense for continued idleness, and that I was makin 
it a raison d’etre 0 for going on indefinitely with study ani 
travel. It is easy to become the dupe of a deferred pur 
5 pose, of the promise the future can never keep, and 
had fallen into the meanest type of self-deception ii 
making myself believe that all this was in preparatioi 
tor great things to come. Nothing less than the mora 




•THE SNARE OF PREPARATION 


81 


action following the experience at a bull-fight had 
:en able to reveal to me that so far from following in 
le wake of a chariot of philanthropic fire, I had been 
ed to the tail of the veriest ox-cart of self-seeking. 

I had made up my mind that next day, whatever 
ippened, I would begin to carry out the plan, if only 
/ talking about it. I can well recall the stumbling and 
icertainty with which I finally set it forth to Miss 
;arr,° my old-time school friend, who was one of our 
irty. I even dared to hope that she might join in 
irrying out the plan, but nevertheless I told it in the 
ar of that disheartening experience which is so apt to 
flict our most cherished plans when they are at last 
vulged, when we suddenly feel that there is nothing 
lere to talk about, and as the golden dream slips 
irough our fingers we are left to wonder at our own 
tuous belief. But gradually the comfort of Miss 
:arr’s companionship, the vigor and enthusiasm which 
le brought to bear upon it, told both in the growth of 
le plan and upon the sense of its validity, so that by 
le time we had reached the enchantment of the Al- 
ambra, the scheme had become convincing and tangi- 
le although still most hazy in detail. 

A month later we parted in Paris, Miss Starr to go 
ack to Italy, and I to journey on to London to secure 
> many suggestions as possible from those wonderful 
laces of which we had heard, Toynbee Hall and the 
eople’s Palace. 0 So that it finally came about that in 





82 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


June, 1888, five years after my first visit in East Lond 1 
I found myself at Toynbee Hall equipped not only w! 
a letter of introduction from Canon Fremantle, 0 1 : 
with high expectations and a certain belief that wh j 
5 ever perplexities and discouragement concerning t 
life of the poor were in store for me, I should at le; 
know something at first hand and have the solace 
daily activity. I had confidence that although life-* 
self might contain many difficulties, the period of me 
o passive receptivity had come to an end, and I had J 
last finished with the everlasting “ preparation for life 
however ill-prepared I might be. 

It was not until years afterward that I came upt 
Tolstoy’s phrase 0 “the snare of preparation,” which 1 
s insists we spread before the feet of young people, hop 
lessly entangling them in a curious inactivity at tl 
very period of life when they are longing to constrm 
the world anew and to conform it to their own ideals. 












k 


CHAPTER V 

First Days at Hull-House 


The next January found Miss Starr and myself in 
licago, searching for a neighborhood in which we 
ight put our plans into execution. In our eagerness 
win friends for the new undertaking, we utilized 
ery opportunity to set forth the meaning of the settle- 
ent as it had been embodied in Toynbee Hall, al- 
ough in those days we made no appeal for money, 
eaning to start with our own slender resources. From 
e very first the plan received courteous attention, and 
te discussion, while often skeptical, was always friend- 
Professor Swing 0 wrote a commendatory column in 
e Evening Journal , and our early speeches were re¬ 
nted quite out of proportion to their worth. I recall a 
irited evening at the home of Mrs. Wilmarth, 0 which 
is attended by that renowned scholar, Thomas 
javidson, 0 and by a young Englishman who was a 
smber of the then new Fabian society 0 and to whom a 
culiar glamour was attached because he had scoured 
lives all summer in a camp of high-minded philosophers 
the Adirondacks. Our new little plan met with criti- 
;m, not to say disapproval, from Mr. Davidson, who, 
nearly as I can remember, called it “one of those 

83 





84 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


* 


unnatural attempts to understand life through coope 
tive living. ” 

It was in vain we asserted that the collective livii> 
was not an essential part of the plan, that we would 
sways scrupulously pay our own expenses, and that 
any moment we might decide to scatter through t 
neighborhood and to live in separate tenements; 
still contended that the fascination for most of the 
volunteering residence would lie in the collective livi 
o aspect of the Settlement. His contention was, of cour 
essentially sound; there is a constant tendency for t 
residents to “lose themselves in the cave of their o\ 
companionship,” as the Toynbee Hall phrase goes, b 
on the other hand, it is doubtless true that the ve 
5 companionship, the give and take of colleagues, is wh 
tends to keep the Settlement normal and in touch wi 
“the world of things as they are.” I am happy to s; 
that we never resented this nor any other difference 
opinion, and that fifteen years later Professor Davidsc 
o handsomely acknowledged that the advantages of 
group far outweighed the weaknesses he had ear 
pointed out. He was at that later moment sharing wit 
a group of young men, on the East Side of New Yorl 
his ripest conclusions in philosophy and was muc 
5 touched by their intelligent interest and absorbed d< 
votion. I think that time has also justified our earl 
contention that the mere foothold of a house, easil 
accessible, ample in space, hospitable and tolerant i 
















FIRST DAYS AT HULL-HOUSE 85 

(spirit, situated in the midst of the large foreign colonies 
which so easily isolate themselves in American cities. 
Would be in itself a serviceable thing for Chicago. I am 
not so sure that we succeeded in our endeavors “to 
make social intercourse express the growing sense of the 
Economic unity of society and to add the social function 
f'o democracy.” But Hull-House was soberly opened 
on the theory that the dependence of classes on each 
other is reciprocal; and that as the social relation is 
essentially a reciprocal relation, it gives a form of ex¬ 
pression that has peculiar value. 

In our search for a vicinity in which to settle we went 
ibout with the officers of the compulsory education 
lepartment, with city missionaries, and with the news¬ 
paper reporters whom I recall as a much older set of 
nen than one ordinarily associates with that profession, 
>r perhaps I was only sent out with the older ones on 
vhat they must all have considered a quixotic mission. 
)ne Sunday afternoon in the late winter a reporter took 

I ne to visit a so-called anarchist Sunday School, several 
>f which were to be found on the northwest side of the 
fity. The young man in charge was of the German 
;tudent type, and his face flushed with enthusiasm as 
lie led the children singing one of Koerner’s poems. 0 
The newspaper man, who did not understand German, 
isked me what abominable stuff they were singing, but 
le seemed dissatisfied with my translation of the simple 
vords and darkly intimated that they were “deep 






86 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


ones,” and had probably “ fooled” me. When I repli^ 
that Koerner was an ardent German poet whose son;I 
inspired his countrymen to resist the aggressions J 
Napoleon, and that his bound poems were found in tl 
5 most respectable libraries, he looked at me rather :] 
skanceand I then and there had my first intimation th;a 
to treat a Chicago man, who is called an anarchist, ; 
you would treat any other citizen, is to lay yourse j 
open to deep suspicion. 

o Another Sunday afternoon in the early spring, on th | 
way to a Bohemian mission in the carriage of one of itl 
founders, we passed a fine old house standing well bac 
from the street, surrounded on three sides by a broa 
piazza which was supported by wooden pillars of ex 
sceptionally pure Corinthian design and proportion, 
was so attracted by the house that I set forth to visit i 
the very next day, but though I searched for it then an 
for several days after, I could not find it, and at lengt 
I most reluctantly gave up the search, 
o 1 hree weeks later, with the advice of several of th 
oldest residents of Chicago, including the ex-mayor o 
the city, Colonel Mason, 0 who had from the first been 
warm friend to our plans, we decided upon a locatioi 
somewhere near the junction of Blue Island Avenue 1 
s Halsted Street, and Harrison Street. I was surprisec 
and overjoyed on the very first day of our search foi 
quarters to come upon the hospitable old house, the 
quest for which I had so recently abandoned. The 











FIRST DAYS AT HULL-HOUSE 87 

:>use was of course rented, the lower part of it used for 
ffices and storerooms in connection with a factory that 
ood back of it. However, after some difficulties were 
kercome, it proved to be possible to sublet the second 
oor and what had been the large drawing-room on the 
•st floor. 

Ihe house had passed through many changes since 
had been built in 1856 for the homestead of one of 
diicago’s pioneer citizens, Mr. Charles J. Hull, and 
though battered by its vicissitudes, was essentially 
und. Before it had been occupied by the factory, it 
id sheltered a second-hand furniture store, and at one 
me the Little Sisters of the Poor had used it for a home 
r the aged. It had a half-skeptical reputation for a 
lunted attic, so far respected by the tenants living on 
he second floor that they always kept a large pitcher 
11 of water on the attic stairs. 1 heir explanation of 
is custom was so incoherent that I was sure it was a 
rvival of the belief that a ghost could not cross ruli¬ 
ng water, but perhaps that interpretation was only 
y eagerness for finding folklore. 

The fine old house responded kindly to repairs, its 
ide hall and open fireplaces always insuring it a 
acious aspect. Its generous owner, Miss Helen 
ulver,° in the following spring gave us a free leasehold 
the entire house. Her kindness has continued 
rough the years until the group of thirteen buildings, 
lich at present comprises our equipment, is built 




88 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


largely upon land which Miss Culver has put at 
service of the Settlement which bears Mr. Hull’s naie 
In those days the house stood between an undertak 
establishment and a saloon. “Knight, Death, and 




s Devil,” the three were called by a Chicago wit, a 
yet any mock heroics which might be implied by co 
paring the Settlement to a knight quickly dropped aw 
under the genuine kindness and hearty welcome. < 
tended to us by the families living up and down t 


d 


o street. 


We furnished the house as we would have furnish I 
it were it in another part of the city, with the phoi 
graphs and other impedimenta we had collected 
Europe, and with a few bits of family mahogan 
s While all the new furniture which was bought was e 
during in quality, we were careful to keep it in charact 
with the fine old residence. Probably no young matn 
ever placed her own things in her own house with mo 
pleasure than that with which we first furnished Hu 
o House. We believed that the Settlement may logical 
bring to its aid all those adjuncts which the cultivate 
man regards as good and suggestive of the best life 
the past. 

On the 18th of September, 1889, Miss Starr and 
5 moved into it, with Miss Mary Keyser, who began b 
performing the housework, but who quickly develope 
into a very important factor in the life of the vicinit 
as well as in that of the household, and whose death fi\ 












FIRST DAYS AT HULL-HOUSE 


89 


it' 

ian 

alci 

d 


cot 


ears later was most sincerely mourned by hundreds of 
ir neighbors. In our enthusiasm over “settling,” the 
rst night we forgot not only to lock but to close a side 
Dor opening on Polk Street, and were much pleased in 
le morning to find that we possessed a fine illustration 
'the honesty and kindliness of our new neighbors. 

Our first guest was an interesting young woman who 
ved in a neighboring tenement, whose widowed mother 
ded her in the support of the family by scrubbing a 
Dwntown theater every night. The mother, of English 
rth, was well bred and carefully educated, but was in 
,ie midst of that bitter struggle which awaits so many 
rangers in American cities who find that their social 
osition tends to be measured solely by the standards 
living they are able to maintain. Our guest has long 
nee married the struggling young lawyer to whom she 
as then engaged, and he is now leading his profession 
an eastern city. She recalls that month’s experience 
ways with a sense of amusement over the fact that the 
iccession of visitors who came to see the new Settle- 
ent invariably questioned her most minutely con- 
:rning “these people” without once suspecting that 
ley were talking to one who had been identified with 
»e neighborhood from childhood. I at least was able 
> draw a lesson from the incident, and I never addressed 
Chicago audience on the subject of the Settlement and 
s vicinity without inviting a neighbor to go with me, 
lat I might curb any hasty generalization by the con- 


11 


r 






90 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


sciousness that I had an auditor who knew the c< 
ditions more intimately than I could hope to do. 

Halsted Street has grown so familiar during twer 
years of residence, that it is difficult to recall its gradi 
5 changes, — the withdrawal of the more prosperc 


v 


Irish and Germans, and the slow substitution of Russi 


Jews, Italians, and Greeks. A description of the str<t 
such as I gave in those early addresses still stands in r 
mind as sympathetic and correct. 


I o 


Halsted Street is thirty-two miles long, and one of the gr 
thoroughfares of Chicago; Polk Street crosses it midway between 1 
stockyards to the south and the ship-building yards on the noi 
branch of the Chicago River. For the six miles between these t 
industries the street is lined with shops of butchers and grocers, w 

1 5 dingy and gorgeous saloons, and pretentious establishments for t 

sale of ready-made clothing. Polk Street, running west from Halst 
Street, grows rapidly more prosperous; running a mile east to Sti 
Street, it grows steadily worse, and crosses a network of vice on t 
corners of Clark Street and Fifth Avenue. Hull-House once stood 

2 o the suburbs, but the city has steadily grown up around it and its si 

now has corners on three or four foreign colonies. Between Halst 
Street and the river live about ten thousand Italians — Neapolita 
Sicilians, and C alabrians, with an occasional Lombard or VenetH 
To the south on Twelfth Street are many Germans, and side stree 

2 s are given over almost entirely to Polish and Russian Jews. St 

farther south, these Jewish colonies merge into a huge Bohemi 
colony, so vast that Chicago ranks as the third Bohemian city in t 
world. To the northwest are many Canadian-French, clannish 
spite of their long residence in America, and to the north are Iri 

3 o and first-generation Americans. On the streets directly west ar 

farther north are well-to-do Fnglish-speaking families, many of who 












FIRST DAYS AT HULL-HOUSE 91 

'(j>vn their houses and have lived in the neighborhood for years; one 
ian is still living in his old farmhouse. 

P The policy of the public authorities of never taking an initiative, 
id always waiting to be urged to do their duty, is obviously fatal in 
^neighborhood where there is little initiative among the citizens. The 5 
01 ea underlying our self-government breaks down in such a ward. 
i:he streets are inexpressibly dirty, the number of schools inadequate, 
Jiinitary legislation unenforced, the street lighting bad, the paving 
dserable and altogether lacking in the alleys and smaller streets, 
id the stables foul beyond description. Hundreds of houses are 1 
iconnected wdth the street sewer. The older and richer inhabitants 
em anxious to move away as rapidly as they can afford it. They 

! ake room for newly arrived immigrants who are densely ignorant of 
vie duties. This substitution of the older inhabitants is accom- 
ished industrially also, in the south and east quarters of the ward. 1 
he Jews and Italians do the finishing for the great clothing manu- 
1 cturers, formerly done by Americans, Irish, and Germans, who 
fused to submit to the extremely low prices to wffich the sweating 
l ' r stem has reduced their successors. As the design of the sweating 
" stem is the elimination of rent from the manufacture of clothing, 2 
Te “outside work” is begun after the clothing leaves the cutter. An 
iscrupulous contractor regards no basement as too dark, no stable 
1 ft too foul, no rear shanty too provisional, no tenement room too 
nail for his workroom, as these conditions imply low rental. Hence 
lese shops abound in the worst of the foreign districts where the 2 
veater easily finds his cheap basement and his home finishers. 

The houses of the ward, for the most part wooden, were originally 
lilt for one family and are now occupied by several. They are after 
te type of the inconvenient frame cottages found in the poorer 
iburbs twenty years ago. Many of them were built where they now 3 
and; others were brought thither on rollers, because their previous 
tes had been taken for factories. The fewer brick tenement build- 
gs which are three or four stories high are comparatively new, and 
lere are few large tenements. The little wooden houses have a 




92 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


temporary aspect, and for this reason, perhaps, the tenement-hoi 
legislation in C hicago is totally inadequate. Rear tenements flouris 
many houses have no water supply save the faucet in the back yai 
there are no fire escapes, the garbage and ashes are placed in wood 
5 boxes which are fastened to the street pavements. One of the mt 
discouraging features about the present system of tenement houses 
that many are owned by sordid and ignorant immigrants. The theo 
that wealth brings responsibility, that possession entails at leng 
education and refinement, in these cases fails utterly. The childm 
t oof an Italian immigrant owner may “shine” shoes in the street, ai 
his wife may pick rags from the street gutter, laboriously sortii 
them in a dingy court. Wealth may do something for her self-cor 
placency and feeling of consequence; it certainly does nothing for h< 
comfort or her children s improvement nor for the cleanliness of ar 
5 one concerned. Another thing that prevents better houses in Chicap 
is the tentative attitude of the real estate men. Many unsavory coi 
ditions are allowed to continue which would be regarded with horrc 
if they were considered permanent. Meanwhile, the wretched coi 
ditions persist until at least two generations of children have bee 
o born and reared in them. 

In every neighborhood where poorer people live, because rents ar 
supposed to be cheaper there, is an element which, although uncertai 
in the individual, in the aggregate can be counted upon. It is com 
posed of people of former education and opportunity who hav 
5 cherished ambitions and prospects, but who are caricatures of wha 
they meant to be “hollow ghosts which blame the living men.’ 
There are times in many lives when there is a cessation of energy am 
loss of power. Men and women of education and refinement come tc 
live in a cheaper neighborhood because they lack the ability to make 
o money, because of ill health, because of an unfortunate marriage, oi 
for other reasons which do not imply criminality or stupidity. Amon^ 
them are those who, in spite of untoward circumstances, keep up 
some sort of an intellectual life; those who are “great for books,” as 
their neighbois say. To such the Settlement may be a genuine refuge 


















FIRST DAYS AT HULL-HOUSE 


93 

1 In the very first weeks of our residence Miss Starr 
Started a reading party in George Eliot’s “Romola,” 0 
j vhich was attended by a group of young women who 
ollowed the wonderful tale with unflagging interest. 
The weekly reading was held in our little upstairs dining 
oom, and two members of the club came to dinner each 
veek, not only that they might be received as guests, 
>ut that they might help us wash the dishes afterwards 
tnd so make the table ready for the stacks of Florentine 
ihotographs. 

Our “first resident,” as she gayly designated herself, 
vas a charming old lady who gave five consecutive 
eadings from Hawthorne to a most appreciative 
tudience, interspersing the magic tales most delightfully 
vith recollections of the elusive and fascinating author, 
fears before she had lived at Brook Farm as a pupil of 
he Ripleys, 0 and she came to us for ten days because she 
vished to live once more in an atmosphere where “ideal- 
sm ran high.” We thus early found the type of class 
which through all the years has remained most popular 
— a combination of a social atmosphere with serious 
study. 

Volunteers to the new undertaking came quickly; 
i charming young girl° conducted a kindergarten in the 
Irawing-room, coming regularly every morning from 
ler home in a distant part of the North Side of the city. 
Although a tablet to her memory has stood upon a 
riantel shelf in Hull-House for five years, we still 








94 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

associate her most vividly with the play of little ch 
dren, first in her kindergarten and then in her ov 
nursery, which furnished a veritable illustration 
Victor Hugo’s definition of heaven, — “a place whe 
s parents are always young and children always little. 
Herd aily presence for the first two years made it qui 
impossible for us to become too solemn and self-coi 
scious in our strenuous routine, for her mirth and buo; 
ancy were irresistible and her eager desire to share ti 
olife of the neighborhood never failed, although it w; 
often put to a severe test. One day at luncheon sf 
gayly recited her futile attempt to impress temperanc 
principles upon the mind of an Italian mother, to whor 
she had returned a small daughter of five sent to th 
s kindergarten “in quite a horrid state of intoxication 
from the wine-soaked bread upon which she had break 
fasted. 1 he mother, with the gentle courtesy of a Soutl 
Italian, listened politely to her graphic portrayal of th 
untimely end awaiting so immature a wine bibber; bu 
o long before the lecture was finished, quite unconsciou 
of the incongruity, she hospitably set forth her bes 
wines, and when her baffled guest refused one after th 
other, she disappeared, only to quickly return with 
small dark glass of whisky, saying reassuringly, “See, 

5 have brought you the true American drink.” Til 
recital ended in seriocomic despair, with the ruefu 
statement that “the impression I probably made upo 
her darkened mind was, that it is the American custo 











FIRST DAYS AT HULL-HOUSE 95 

1 o breakfast children on bread soaked in whisky instead 
J»’)f light Italian wine.” 

lhat first kindergarten was a constant source of 
if “ducation to us. We were much surprised to find social 
edistinctions even among its lambs, although greatly 5 
Amused with the neat formulation made by the superior 
ohttle Italian boy who refused to sit beside uncouth little 
(Angelina because “we eat our macaroni this way,” — 

" mitating the movement of a fork from a plate to his 
'! nouth, — “and she eat her macaroni this way,” hold- io 
ng his hand high in the air and throwing back his head, 
i|hat his wide-open mouth might receive an imaginary 
ascade. Angelina gravely nodded her little head in 
ipproval of this distinction between gentry and peasant. 
irBut isn’t it astonishing that merely table manners are 15 

I nade such a test all the way along?” was the comment 
>f their democratic teacher. Another memory which 
I efuses to be associated with death, which came to her 

! tll too soon, is that of the young girl who organized our 
irst really successful club of boys, holding their fas- 20 
:inated interest by the old chivalrie tales, set forth so 
Iramatically and vividly that checkers and jackstraws 
vere abandoned by all the other clubs on Boys’ Day, 
hat their members might form a listening fringe to 
‘The Young Heroes.” 25 

I met a member of the latter club one day as he flung 
limself out of the House in the rage by which an 
emotional boy hopes to keep from shedding tears. 




96 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

“There is no use coming here any more, Prince Roland 
is dead,” he gruffly explained as we passed. We en 
couraged the younger boys in tournaments and dramat 
ics of all sorts, and we somewhat fatuously believed tha 
s boys who were early interested in adventurers or ex¬ 
plorers might later want to know the lives of living 
statesmen and inventors. It is needless to add that the 
boys quickly responded to such a program, and that the 
only difficulty lay in finding leaders who were able to 
i o carry it out. 1 his difficulty has been with us through 
all the years of growth and development in the Boys’ 
Club until now, with its five-story building, its splendid 
equipment of shops, of recreation and study rooms, 
that group alone is successful which commands the 

1 s services of a resourceful and devoted leader. 

The dozens of younger children who from the first 
came to Hull-House were organized into groups which 
weie not quite classes and not quite clubs. I he value of 
these groups consisted almost entirely in arousing a 
20 higher imagination and in giving the children the op¬ 
portunity which they could not have in the crowded 
schools, for initiative and for independent social re¬ 
lationships. The public schools then contained little 
hand work of any sort, so that naturally any instruction 

2 5 which we provided for the children took the direction ! 

of this supplementary work. But it required a 
constant effort that the pressure of poverty itself should 
not defeat the educational aim. The Italian girls in the 










FIRST DAYS AT HULL-HOUSE 97 

sewing classes would count that day lost when they 
could not carry home a garment, and the insistence that 
it should be neatly made seemed a super-refinement to 
those in dire need of clothing. 

. As these clubs have been continued during the twenty 
•years they have developed classes in the many forms of 
handicraft which the newer education is so rapidly 
adapting for the deiight of children; hut they still keep 
their essentially social character and still minister to 
that large number of children who leave school the very 
week they are fourteen years old, only too eager to close 
the schoolroom door forever on a tiresome task that is 
at last well over. It seems to us important that these 
children shall find themselves permanently attached to 
a House that ofFers them evening clubs and classes with 
their old companions, that merges as easily as possible 
the school life into the working life and does what it 
can to find places for the bewildered young things look¬ 
ing for work. A large proportion of the delinquent boys 
brought into the juvenile court in Chicago are the oldest 
sons in large families whose wages are needed at home. 
The grades from which many of them leave school, as 
the records show, are piteously far from the seventh and 
; eighth where the very first instruction in manual train¬ 
ing is given, nor have they been caught by any other 
abiding interest. 

In spite of these flourishing clubs for children early 
established at Hull-House, and the fact that our first 



98 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

organized undertaking was a kindergarten, we we 
very insistent that the Settlement should not l 
primarily for the children, and that it was absurd t 
suppose that grown people would not respond to of 
s portunities for education and social life. Our er 
thusiastic kindergartner herself demonstrated this wit 
an old woman of ninety, who, because she was left alon 
all day while her daughter cooked in a restaurant, hac 
formed such a persistent habit of picking the plaster of 
iothe walls that one landlord after another refused t( 
have her for a tenant. It required but a few weeks 
time to teach her to make large paper chains, and 
gradually she was content to do it all day long, and in 
the end took quite as much pleasure in adorning the 

1 s walls as she had formerly taken in demolishing them. 

fortunately the landlord had never heard the aesthetic 
principle that the exposure of basic construction is more 
desirable than gaudy decoration. In course of time it 
was discovered that the old woman could speak Gaelic, 0 
20 and when one or two grave professors came to see her, 
the neighborhood was filled with pride that such a 
wonder lived in their midst. To mitigate life for a 
woman of ninety was an unfailing refutation of the 

statement that the Settlement was designed for the 

2 5 young. 

On our first New Year’s Day at Hull-House we in- , 
vited the older people in the vicinity, sending a carriage ^ 




FIRST DAYS AT HULL-HOUSE 99 

erj>r the most feeble and announcing to all of them that 
bj'e were going to organize an Old Settlers’ Party, 
t; Every New Year s Day since, older people in varying 
ojumbers have come together at Hull-House to relate 
eifirly hardships, and to take for the moment the place 
1 the community to which their pioneer life entitles 
lem. Many people who were formerly residents of the 
a| icinity, but whom prosperity has carried into more 
esirable neighborhoods, come back to these meetings 
ad often confess to each other that they have never 
nee found such kindness as in early Chicago when all 
s citizens came together in mutual enterprises. Many 
F these pioneers, so like the men and women of my 
f arliest childhood that I always felt comforted by their 
resence in the house, were very much opposed to 
foreigners,” whom they held responsible for a de- 
reciation of property and a general lowering of the 
ane of the neighborhood. Sometimes we had a chance 
ar championship; I recall one old man, fiercely Ameri- 
an, who had reproached me because we had so many 
foreign views” on our walls, to whom I endeavored to 
et forth our hope that the pictures might afford a 
amiliar island to the immigrants in a sea of new and 
trange impressions. The old settler guest, taken off his 
uard, replied, “I see; they feel as we did when we saw 
Yankee notion from down East,” — thereby formu- 
ating the dim kinship between the pioneer and the 


I o 


I 5 


2 o 


2 5 








ioo TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


immigrant, both “ buffeting the waves of a new develoj 
ment.” The older settlers as well as their childre 
throughout the years have given genuine help to oi 
various enterprises for neighborhood improvement, an 
5 from their own memories of earlier hardships hav 
made many shrewd suggestions for alleviating th 
difficulties of that first sharp struggle with untowah 
conditions. 

In those early days we were often asked why we hac 
i o come to live on Halsted Street when we could afford t( 
live somewhere else. I remember one man who used t< 
shake his head and say it was “the strangest thing he 
had met in his experience,” but who was finally con¬ 
vinced that it was “not strange but natural.” In time 

1 s it came to seem natural to all of us that* the Settlement 

should be there. If it is natural to feed the hungry and 
care for the sick, it is certainly natural to give pleasure 
to the young, comfort to the aged, and to minister to 
the deep-seated craving for social intercourse that all 
2omen feel. Whoever does it is rewarded by something 
which, if not gratitude, is at least spontaneous and vital 
and lacks that irksome sense of obligation with which a 
substantial benefit is too often acknowledged. 

In addition to the neighbors who responded to the 

2 s receptions and classes, we found those who were too 

battered and oppressed to care for them. To these, 
however, was left that susceptibility to the bare offices 



FIRST DAYS AT HULL-HOUSE 


IOI 


f humanity which raises such offices into a bond of 
dlowship. 

From the first it seemed understood that we were 
3ady to perform the humblest neighborhood services. 

/e were asked to wash the new-born babies, and to 5 
repare the dead for burial, to nurse the sick, and to 
mind the children.” 

Occasionally these neighborly offices unexpectedly 
ncovered ugly human traits. For six weeks after an 
peration we kept in one of our three bedrooms a forlorn 10 
ttle baby who, because he was born with a cleft palate, 
as most unwelcome even to his mother, and we were 
orrified when he died of neglect a week after he was 
iturned to his home; a little Italian bride of fifteen 
fiught shelter with us one November evening, to escape 15 
er husband who had beaten her every night for a week 
hen he returned home from work, because she had lost 
er wedding ring; two of us officiated quite alone at the 
irth of an illegitimate child because the doctor was 
ite in arriving, and none of the honest Irish matrons 20 
^ould “touch the likes of her”; we ministered at the 
eathbed of a young man, who during a long illness of 
aberculosis had received so many bottles of whisky 
irough the mistaken kindness of his friends, that the 
Cumulative effect produced wild periods of exultation, 25 
t one of which he died. 

We were also early impressed with the curious isola- 




io2 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


tion of many of the immigrants; an Italian woman or 4 
expressed her pleasure in the red roses that she saw ; 
one of our receptions in surprise that they had be I 
“brought so fresh all the way from Italy .” She woe 
snot believe for an instant that they had been grown 
America. She said that she had lived in Chicago for sj 
years and had never seen any roses, whereas in Italy si 
had seen them every summer in great profusion. Durii 1 
all that time, of course, the woman had lived within 1 1 
o blocks of a florist’s window; she had not been more tha 
a five-cent car ride away from the public parks; but si 
had never dreamed of faring forth for herself, and n! 
one had taken her. Her conception of America had bee 
the untidy street in which she lived and had made he 
s long struggle to adapt herself to American ways. 

But in spite of some untoward experiences, we wer 
constantly impressed with the uniform kindness ant 
courtesy we received. Perhaps these first days laid th< 
simple human foundations which are certainly essentia 
o foi continuous living among the poor: first, genuint 
preference for residence in an industrial quarter to any 
othei part of the city, because it is interesting and 
makes the human appeal; and second, the conviction, 
in the words of Canon Barnett, 0 that the things which 
5 make men alike are finer and better than the things 
that keep them apart, and that these basic likenesses, if 
they are properly accentuated, easily transcend the less 



FIRST DAYS AT HULL-HOUSE 103 

i'nsential differences of race, language, creed, and 
hadition. 

t Perhaps even in those first days we made a beginning 

I ward that object which was afterwards stated in our 
larter: “To provide a center for a higher civic and 5 
cial life; to institute and maintain educational and 
pilanthropic enterprises, and to investigate and im- 
jove the conditions in the industrial districts of 
hicago. ” 




CHAPTER VI 

Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements! 

The Ethical Culture Societies held a summer seho'cl 
at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1892, to which the I 
invited several people representing the then new Settle ^ 
ment movement, that they might discuss with other! 
5 the general theme of Philanthropy and Social Progress] 
I venture to produce here parts of a lecture I de j 
livered in Plymouth, both because I have found it im * 
possible to formulate with the same freshness thos 1 
early motives and strivings, and because, when pub- 
10 lished with other papers given that summer, it was re¬ 
ceived by the Settlement people themselves as a satis¬ 
factory statement. 

I iemember one golden summer afternoon during the 
sessions of the summer school that several of us met on 
15 the shores of a pond in a pine wood a few miles from 
Plymouth, to discuss our new movement. The natural 
leader of the group was Robert A. Woods. 0 He had 
recently returned from a residence in Toynbee Hall, 
London, to open Andover House in Boston, and had 
2 ojust issued a book, “English Social Movements/’ in 
which he had gathered together and focused the many 
forms of social endeavor preceding and contemporane¬ 
ity 












SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS 105 

ijjis with the English Settlements. There were Miss 
Ida D. Scudder 0 and Miss Helena Dudley 0 from the 
(allege Settlement Association, Miss Julia C. Lathrop 
npd myself from Hull-House. Some of us had numbered 

I h years as far as thirty, and we all carefully avoided 5 
e extiavagance of statement which characterizes 
>uth, and yet I doubt if anywhere on the continent 
at summer could have been found a group of people 
ore genuinely interested in social development or more 
icerely convinced that they had found a clew by which 1 o 
e conditions in crowded cities might be understood 
td the agencies for social betterment developed. 

We were all careful to avoid saying that we had found 
3“ life work,” perhaps with an instinctive dread of ex- 
pnding all our energy in vows of constancy, as so often 15 
hppens; and yet it is interesting to note that all of the 
pople whom I have recalled as the enthusiasts at that 
1 tie conference, have remained attached to Settlements 
i actual residence for longer or shorter periods each 
yar during the eighteen years which have elapsed 20 
sice then, although they have also been closely identi- 
hd as publicists or governmental officials with move- 
lents outside. It is as if they had discovered that the 
rttlement was too valuable as a method as a way of 
S>proach to the social question to be abandoned, al- 25 
1 ough they had long since discovered that it was not a 
Isocial movement” in itself. This, however, is antici- 
Uting the future, whereas the following paper on “The 




106 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


1 


Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements” shou 
have a chance to speak for itself. It is perhaps too la 
in the day to express regret for its stilted title. 

This paper is an attempt to analyze the motives which underlie 
5 movement based, not only upon conviction, but upon genuine em 
tion, wherever educated young people are seeking an outlet for th 
sentiment of universal brotherhood, which the best spirit of our tim I 
is forcing from an emotion into a motive. 1 hese young people accoi 
plish little toward the solution of this social problem, and bear t 
x o brunt of being cultivated into unnourished, oversensitive lives. Th 
have been shut off from the common labor by which they live whi 
is a great source of moral and physical health. They feel a fatal win 
of harmony between their theory and theirlives, alack of coordinatio 
between thought and action. I think it is hard for us to realize ho 

1 s seriously many of them are taking to the notion of human brothei 

hood, how eagerly they long to give tangible expression to th 
democratic ideal. These young men and women, longing to socializ 
their democracy, are animated by certain hopes which may be thu 
loosely formulated; that if in a democratic country nothing can b 
20 permanently achieved save through the masses of the people, it wil 
be impossible to establish a higher political life than the people them 
selves crave; that it is difficult to see how the notion of a higher civi( 
life can be fostered save through common intercourse; that the bless¬ 
ings which we associate with a life of refinement and cultivation can 

2 5 be made universal and must be made universal if they are to be 

permanent; that the good we secure for ourselves is precarious and 
uncertain, is floating in mid-air, until it is secured for all of us and 
incorporated into our common life. It is easier to state these hopes 
than to formulate the line of motives, which I believe to constitute 

3 o the trend of the subjective pressure toward the Settlement. There is 

something primordial about these motives, but I am perhaps over* 
bold in designating them as a great desire to share the race life. We 
all bear traces of the starvation struggle which for so long made up 

















SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS 107 

lojff t ^ ie race * Our very organism holds memories and glimpses 
) || at long our ancestors which still goes on among so many of 
P' contemporaries. Nothing so deadens the sympathies and shrivels 
t: power of enjoyment, as the persistent keeping away from the great 

I portumties for helpfulness and a continual ignoring of the starva- 5 
n struggle which makes up the life of at least half the race. To 
•It one’s self away from that half of the race life is to shut one’s self 
ay from the most vital part of it; it is to live out but half the 
inanity to which we have been born heir and to use but half our 
ulties. We have all had longings for a fuller life which should in- 1 o 
de the use of these faculties. These longings are the physical 
nplement of the “Intimations of Immortality,” on which no ode 
■ yet been written. 1 o portray these would be the work of a poet, 

1 it is hazardous for any but a poet to attempt it. 
fou may remember the forlorn feeling which occasionally seizes 1 5 
1 when you arrive early in the morning a stranger in a great city: 
stream of laboring people goes past you as you gaze through the 
pte-glass window of your hotel; you see hard working men lifting 
gat burdens; you hear the driving and jostling of huge carts and 
yir heart sinks with a sudden sense of futility. The door opens 20 
lind you and you turn to the man who brings you in your breakfast 
h a quick sense of human fellowship. You find yourself praying 
it you may never lose your hold on it all. A more poetic prayer 
uld be that the great mother breasts of our common humanity, 
wh its labor and suffering and its homely comforts, may never be 2 5 
vchheld from you. You turn helplessly to the waiter and feel that it 
• uld be almost grotesque to claim from him the sympathy you crave 
b:ause civilization has placed you apart, but you resent your position 

! h a sudden sense of snobbery. Literature is full of portrayals of 
•se glimpses: they come to shipwrecked men on rafts; they over- 30 
ne the differences of an incongruous multitude when in the presence 
1 great danger or when moved by a common enthusiasm. They are 
Ip, however, confined to such moments, and if we were in the habit 
telline them to each other, the recital would be as Iona: as the tales 


io8 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


of children are, when they sit down on the green grass and confide 
each other how many times they have remembered that they In 
once before. If these childish tales are the stirring of inherited 
pressions, just so surely is the other the striving of inherited po 
S “ It is true that there is nothing after disease, indigence and a s 
of guilt, so fatal to health and to life itself as the want of a pro 
outlet for active faculties.” I have seen young girls suffer and gr 
sensibly lowered in vitality in the first years after they leave scho 
In our attempt then to give a girl pleasure and freedom from care 1 
i o succeed, for the most part, in making her pitifully miserable. S 
finds “life” so different from what she expected it to be. She 
besotted with innocent little ambitions, and does not understand tl 
apparent waste of herself, this elaborate preparation, if no work 
provided for her. There is a heritage of noble obligation which you 

1 s people accept and long to perpetuate. The desire for action, the wi 

to right wrong and alleviate suffering haunts them daily. Soci 
smiles at it indulgently instead of making it of value to itself, 
wrong to them begins even farther back, when we restrain the fi 
childish desires for “doing good” and tell them that they must wa 

2 o until they are older and better fitted. We intimate that social oblig 

tion begins at a fixed date, forgetting that it begins with birth itsel 


We treat them as children who, with strong-growing limbs, ar 
allowed to use their legs but not their arms, or whose legs are daih 
carefully exercised that after a while their arms may be put to higl 
2 5 use. We do this in spite of the protest of the best educators, Lock* 
and Pestalozzi. We are fortunate in the meantime if their unusec 
members do not weaken and disappear. 1 hey do sometimes. T hen 
are a few girls who, by the time they are “educated,” forget their ole 
childish desires to help the world and to play with poor little girls 
30 who haven t playthings. Parents are often inconsistent: the} 
deliberately expose their daughters to knowledge of the distress ir 
the world; they send them to hear missionary addresses on famines 
in India and China; they accompany them to lectures on the suffering 
m Siberia; they agitate together over the forgotten region of Easi 









SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS 


109 


1 >ndon. In addition to this, from babyhood the altruistic tendencies 
these daughters are persistently cultivated. They are taught to 
self-forgetting and self-sacrificing, to consider the good of the 
lole before the good of the ego. But when all this information and 
»lture show results, when the daughter comes back from college 5 
id begins to recognize her social claim to the “submerged tenth,” 
id to evince a disposition to fulfill it, the family claim is strenuously 
serted, she is told that she is unjustified, ill-advised in her efforts, 
she persists, the family too often are injured and unhappy unless 
e efforts are called missionary and the religious zeal of the family 1 o 
tries them over their sense of abuse. When this zeal does not exist, 
e result is perplexing. It is a curious violation of what we would 
in believe a fundamental law — that the final return of the deed is 
>on the head of the doer. The deed is that of exclusiveness and 
ution, but the return, instead of falling upon the head of the ex- 1 5 
jsive and cautious, falls upon a young head full of generous and un¬ 
ifish plans. The girl loses something vital out of her life to which she 
entitled. She is restricted and unhappy; her elders, meanwhile, are 
(conscious of the situation and we have all the elements of a tragedy. 

We have in America a fast-growing number of cultivated young 20 
ople who have no recognized outlet for their active faculties. They 
!ar constantly of the great social maladjustment, but no way is 
1 ovided for them to change it, and their uselessness hangs about them 
3 avily. Huxley declares that the sense of uselessness is the severest 
lock which the human system can sustain, and that if persistently 25 
astained, it results in atrophy of function. These young people have 
3 d advantages of college, of European travel, and of economic 
Udy, but they are sustaining this shock of inaction. They have pet 

I irases, and they tell you that the things that make us all alike are 
ronger than the things that make us different. They say that all 30 
jen are united by needs and sympathies far more permanent and 
idical than anything that temporarily divides them and sets them 
i opposition to each other. If they affect art, they say that the decay 
artistic expression is due to the decay in ethics, that art when shut 




no TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


away from the human interests and from the great mass of humani 
is self-destructive. They tell their elders with all the bitterness 
youth that if they expect success from them in business or politics 
in whatever lines their ambition for them has run, they must let the 
5 consult all of humanity; that they must let them find out what tl 
people want and how they want it. It is only the stronger youi 
people, however, who formulate this. Many of them dissipate the 
energies in so-called enjoyment. Others not content with that, go c 
studying and go back to college for their second degrees; not th: 

1 o they are especially fond of study, but because they want somethir 

definite to do, and their powers have been trained in the direction ( 
mental accumulation. Many are buried beneath this mental accumi 
lation with lowered vitality and discontent. Walter Besant 0 sa} 
they have had the vision that Peter had when he saw the great shee 
x 5 let down from heaven, wherein was neither clean nor unclean. H 
calls it the sense of humanity. It is not philanthropy nor benevolenci 
but a thing fuller and wider than either of these. 

1 his young life, so sincere in its emotion and good phrases and ye 
So undirected, seems to me as pitiful as the other great mass of desti 

2 ° tute lives. One is supplementary to the other, and some method o 

communication can surely be devised. Mr. Barnett, who urged th< 
first Settlement, I oynbee Hall, in East London, — recognized thi; 
need of outlet for the young men of Oxford and Cambridge, and 
hoped that the Settlement would supply the communication. It it 
2 s easy to see why the Settlement movement originated in England, 
where the years of education are more constrained and definite than 
they are here, where class distinctions are more rigid. The necessity 
ot it was greater there, but we are fast feeling the pressure of the need 
and meeting the necessity for Settlements in America. Our young 
30 people feel nervously the need of putting theory into action, and 
respond quickly to the Settlement form of activity. 

Other motives which I believe make toward the Settlement are the 
result of a certain renaissance going forward in Christianity. The 
impulse to share the lives of the poor, the desire to make social service. 



1 o 


I 5 


SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS m 

" respective of propaganda, express the spirit of Christ, is as old as 
■ hristianity itself. We have no proof from the records themselves 
^at the early Roman Christians, who strained their simple art to the 
ir >int ol grotesqueness in their eagerness to record a “good news” on 
e walls of the catacombs, considered this good news a religion. 5 
sus had no set of truths labeled Religious. On the contrary, his 
-ictrine was that all truth is one, that the appropriation of it is 
A'sedom. His teaching had no dogma to mark it off from truth and 
tion in general. He himself called it a revelation — a life. These 
rly Roman Christians received the Gospel message, a command 
love all men, with a certain joyous simplicity. The image of the 
aod Shepherd is blithe and gay beyond the gentlest shepherd of 
reek mythology; the hart no longer pants, but rushes to the water 
ooks. The Christians looked for the continuous revelation, but 
lieved what Jesus said, that this revelation, to be retained and made 
anifest, must be put into terms of action; that action is the only 
edium man has for receiving and appropriating truth; that the 
ictrine must be known through the will. 

That Christianity has to be revealed and embodied in the line of 
cial progress is a corollary to the simple proposition, that man’s 20 
Ition is found in his social relationships in the way in which he con- 

I cts with his fellows; that his motives for action are the zeal and 
ection with which he regards his fellows. By this simple process 
is created a deep enthusiasm for humanity, which regarded man as 
I once the organ and the object of revelation; and by this process 25 
i me about the wonderful fellowship, the true democracy of the early 
/•lurch., that so captivates the imagination. The early Christians 
lire preeminently nonresistant. They believed in love as a cosmic 
ajrce. There was no iconoclasm during the minor peace of the Church. 
Hey did not yet denounce nor tear down temples, nor preach the 30 
i d of the world. They grew to a mighty number, but it never oc- 
* rred to them, either in their weakness or in their strength, to regard 
ther men for an instant as their foes or as aliens. The spectacle of 
\e Christians loving all men was the most astounding Rome had ever 



11 2 


TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


seen. They were eager to sacrifice themselves for the weak, for 
dren, and for the aged; they identified themselves with slaves anc 
not avoid the plague; they longed to share the common lot that i 
might receive the constant revelation. It was a new treasure w 
5 the early Christians added to the sum of all treasures, a joy hith 
unknown in the world — the joy of finding the Christ which liet 
each man, but which no man can unfold save in fellowship. A ha 
ness ranging from the heroic to the pastoral enveloped them. T 
were to possess a revelation as long as life had new meaning to 
ofold, new action to propose. 

I believe that there is a distinct turning among many young r k 
and women toward this simple acceptance of Christ’s message. Ti \ 
resent the assumption that Christianity is a set of ideas which beh 
to the religious consciousness, whatever that may be. They in 
5 that it cannot be proclaimed and instituted apart from the social 
of the community and that it must seek a simple and natural 
pression in the social organism itself. The Settlement movemen 
only one manifestation of that wider humanitarian movement wh 
throughout Christendom, but preeminently in England, is endeav 
oing to embody itself, not in a sect, but in society itself. 

I believe that this turning, this renaissance of the early Christ 
humanitarianism, is going on in America, in Chicago, if you plea 
without leaders who write or philosophize, without much speakir 
but with a bent to express in social service and in terms of action t 
5 spirit of Christ. Certain it is that spiritual force is found in the Sett 
ment movement, and it is also true that this force must be evoked ai 
must be called into play before the success of any Settlement is a 
sured. I here must be the overmastering belief that all that is noble 
in life is common to men as men, in order to accentuate the likeness 
o and ignore the differences which are found among the people w 7 ho 
the Settlement constantly brings into juxtaposition. Jt may be tru 
as the Positivists insist, that the very religious fervor of man can 1 
turned into love for his race, and his desire for a future life into coi 
tent to live in the echo of Ins deeds; Paul’s formula of seeking for tl 









SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS 


113 

rdirist which lieth in each man and founding our likenesses on him, 
ad sms a simpler formula to many of us. 

t til In a thousand voices singing the Hallelujah Chorus in Handel’s 
wfiS/Iessiah, ” it is possible to distinguish the leading voices, but the 
differences of training and cultivation between them and the voices 5 
;tj: the chorus, are lost in the unity of purpose and in the fact that they 
ap-e all human voices lifted by a high motive. This is a weak illustra- 
!• m of what a Settlement attempts to do. It aims, in a measure, to 
o< velop whatever of social life its neighborhood may afford, to focus 
d give form to that life, to bring to bear upon it the results of cul- 1 o 
-vation and training; but it receives in exchange for the music of 
Mated voices the volume and strength of the chorus. It is quite im- 
i i>ssible for me to say in what proportion or degree the subjective 
n icessity which led to the opening of Hull-House combined the three 
;nds: first, the desire to interpret democracy in social terms; 1 5 
condly, the impulse beating at the very source of our lives, urging 
to aid in the race progress; and, thirdly, the Christian movement 
ward humanitarianism. It is difficult to analyze a living thing; the 
lalysis is at best imperfect. Many more motives may blend with 
e three trends; possibly the desire for a new form of social success 20 
le to the nicety of imagination, which refuses worldly pleasures un- 
ixed with the joys of self-sacrifice; possibly a love of approbation, 
vast that it is not content with the treble clapping of delicate hands, 
it wishes also to hear the bass notes from toughened palms, may 
ingle with these. 2 5 

The Settlement, then, is an experimental effort to aid in the solution 
the social and industrial problems which are engendered by the 
odern conditions of life in a great city. It insists that these problems 
e not confined to any one portion of a city. It is an attempt to 
lieve, at the same time, the overaccumulation at one end of society 30 
id the destitution at the other; but it assumes that this overaccumu- 
tion and destitution is most sorely felt in the things that pertain to 
icial and educational advantages. From its very nature it can stand 
>r no political or social propaganda. It must, in a sense, give the 




11 4 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

warm welcome of an inn to all such propaganda, if perchance one 
them be found an angel. The one thing to be dreaded in the Sett 
ment is that it lose its flexibility, its power of quick adaptation, 
readiness to change its methods as its environment may demand. 

5 must be open to conviction and must have a deep and abiding ser 
of tolerance. It must be hospitable and ready for experiment, 
should demand from its residents a scientific patience in the accurri 
lation of facts and the steady holding of their sympathies as one 
the best instruments for that accumulation. It must be grounded 

i o a philosophy whose foundation is on the solidarity of the human rac 
a philosophy which will not waver when the race happens to be repr 
sented by a drunken woman or an idiot boy. Its residents must 1 
emptied of all conceit of opinion and all self-assertion, and ready 1 
arouse and interpret the public opinion of their neighborhood. The 

1 5 must be content to live quietly side by side with their neighbors, unt 

they grow into a sense of relationship and mutual interests. The 
neighbors are held apart by differences of race and language whic 
the residents can more easily overcome. They are bound to see th 
netcio or their neighborhood as a whole, to furnish data for legislatior 

2 o and to use their influence to secure it. In short, residents are pledge 

to devote themselves to the duties of good citizenship and to th 
arousing of the social energies which too largely lie dormant in ever 
neighborhood given over to industrialism. They are bound to regar 
the entire life of their city as organic, to make an effort to unify il 

2 s and to protest against its over-differentiation. 

It is always easy to make all philosophy point one particular mora 
and all history adorn one particular tale; but I may be forgiven th 
reminder that the best speculative philosophy sets forth the solidarit 
of the human race; that the highest moralists have taught that with 

3 o out the advance and improvement of the whole, no man can hope fo 

any lasting improvement in his own moral or material individua 
condition; and that the subjective necessity for Social Settlements i 
therefore identical with that necessity, which urges us on towar, 
social and individual salvation. 


CHAPTER VII 

Some Early Undertakings at Hull-House 

If the early American Settlements stood for a more 
vigent standard in philanthropic activities, insisting 
lat each new undertaking should be preceded by care- 
illy ascertained facts, then certainly Hull-House held 
3 this standard in the opening of our new coffee-house 5 
rst started as a public kitchen. An investigation of 
he sweatshops had disclosed the fact that sewing 
/omen during the busy season paid little attention to 
he feeding of their families, for it was only by working 
teadily through the long day that the scanty pay ol 1 
ve, seven, or nine cents for finishing a dozen pairs of 
rousers could be made into a day’s wage; and they 
•ought from the nearest grocery the canned goods that 
ould be most quickly heated, or gave a few pennies to 
he children with which they might secure a lunch from 1 
. neighboring candy shop. 

One of the residents made an investigation, at the 
nstance of the United States Department of Agricul- 
ure, into the food values of the dietaries of the various 
mmigrants, and this was followed by an investigation 2 
jnade by another resident, for the United States De- 
>artment of Labor, into the foods of the Italian colony, 




n6 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

on the supposition that the constant use of importe( 
products bore a distinct relation to the cost of living, 
recall an Italian who, coming into Hull-House one da} 
as we were sitting at the dinner table, expressed great 
5 surprise that Americans ate a variety of food, because 
he believed that they partook only of potatoes and beer, 
A little inquiry showed that this conclusion was drawn 
from the fact that he lived next to an Irish saloon and 
had never seen anything but potatoes going in and beer 
o coming out. 

At that time the New England kitchen was com¬ 
paratively new in Boston, and Mrs. Richards, who was 
largely responsible for its foundation, hoped that cheap¬ 
er cuts of meat and simpler vegetables, if they were 
s subjected to slow and thorough processes of cooking, 
might be made attractive and their nutritive value 
secured for the people who so sadly needed more 
nutritious food. It was felt that this could be best 
accomplished in public kitchens, where the advantage 
oof scientific training and careful supervision could be 
secured. One of the residents went to Boston for a 
training under Mrs. Richards, and when the Hull-House 
kitchen was fitted under her guidance and direction, 
our hopes ran high for some modification of the food 
5 of the neighborhood. We did not reckon, however, 
with the wide diversity in nationality and inherited 
tastes, and while we sold a certain amount of the care¬ 
fully prepared soups and stews in the neighboring 


SOME EARLY UNDERTAKINGS 


117 


4 ctories — a sale which has steadily increased through- 
|ht the years — and were also patronized by a few 
buseholds, perhaps the neighborhood estimate was 
Jest summed up by the woman who frankly confessed 
aat the food was certainly nutritious, but that she 5 
idn’t like to eat what was nutritious, that she liked to 
lit “what she’d ruther.” 

If the dietetics were appreciated but slowly, the 
;>cial value of the coffee-house and the gymnasium, 
hich were in the same building, were quickly demon- 10 
rated. At that time the saloon halls were the only 
laces in the neighborhood where the immigrant could 
Ibid his social gatherings, and where he could celebrate 
|ich innocent and legitimate occasions as weddings and 


nristenings. 

These halls were rented very cheaply with the under- 
anding that various sums of money should be “passed 
:ross the bar,” and it was considered a mean host or 
jest who failed to live up to this implied bargain. The 
onsequence was that many a reputable party ended 
ith a certain amount of disorder, due solely to the fact 
Hat the social instinct was traded upon and used as a 
asis for money making by an adroit host. From the 
eginmng the young people s clubs had asked for danc- 
ig, and nothing was more popular than the increased 
pace for parties offered by the gymnasium, with the 
hance to serve refreshments in the room below. We 
ried experiments with every known soft drink, from 


15 


2 o 


2 5 





118 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


those extracted from an expensive soda water fountain 
to slender glasses of grape juice, but so far as drinks were 
concerned we never became a rival to the saloon, nor 
indeed did any one imagine that we were trying to do 
s so. I remember one man who looked about the cozy 
little room and said, “This would be a nice place to sit 
in all day if one could only have beer.” But the coffee¬ 
house gradually performed a mission of its own and 
became something of a social center to the neighborhood 
ioas well as a real convenience. Business men from the 
adjacent factories and school teachers from the nearest 
public schools, used it increasingly. The Hull-House 
students and club members supped together in little 
groups or held their reunions and social banquets, as, 
is to a certain extent, did organizations from all parts of 
the town. 1 he experience of the coffee-house taught us 
not to hold to preconceived ideas of what the neighbor¬ 
hood ought to have, but to keep ourselves in readiness 
to modify and adapt our undertakings as we discovered 
2 o those things which the neighborhood was ready to 
accept. 

Better food was doubtless needed, but more attractive r ' 
and safer places for social gatherings were also needed, 
and the neighborhood was ready for one and not for the 
2 s other. We had no hint then in Chicago of the small 
parks which were to be established fifteen years later, 
containing the halls for dancing and their own restau¬ 
rants in buildings where the natural desire of the young 








SOME EARLY UNDERTAKINGS 119 

Ir gayety and social organization, could be safely in- 
dged. Yet even in that early day a member of the 
ull-House Men’s Club who had been appointed 
iperintendent of Douglas Park had secured there the 
rst public swimming pool, and his fellow club members 
ere proud of the achievement. 

There was in the earliest undertakings at Hull-House 
touch of the artist’s enthusiasm when he translates 
is inner vision through his chosen material into out- 
| ard form. Keenly conscious of the social confusion all 
bout us and the hard economic struggle, we at times 
elieved that the very struggle itself might become a 
puree of strength. 1 he devotion of the mothers to 
heir children, the dread of the men lest they fail to 
rovide for the family dependent upon their daily 
[xertions, at moments seemed to us the secret stores of 
trength from which society is fed, the invisible anay 
|if passion and feeling which are the surest piotectois 
j,f the world. We fatuously hoped that we might pluck 
rom the human tragedy itself a consciousness of a 
Common destiny which should bring its own healing, 
hat we might extract from life’s very misfortunes a 
bower of cooperation which should be effective against 

:hem. 

Of course there was always present the harrowing 
consciousness of the difference in economic condition 
between ourselves and our neighbors. Even if we had 
gone to live in the most wretched tenement, there 





i2o TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


would have always been an essential difference betwec 
them and ourselves, for we should have had a sense « 
security in regard to illness and old age and the lack ( 
these two securities are the specters which most pe 
ssistently haunt the poor. Could we, in spite of thi: 
make their individual efforts more effective throug 
organization and possibly complement them by sma! 
efforts of our own ? 

Some such vague hope was in our minds when w< 
o started the Hull-House Cooperative Coal Association 
which led a vigorous life for three years, and developec 
a large membership under the skillful advice of its one 
paid officer, an English workingman who had had ex¬ 
perience in cooperative societies at “ome.” Some of 
s the meetings of the association, in which people met to 
consider together their basic dependence upon fire and 
warmth, had a curious challenge of life about them. 
Because the cooperators knew what it meant to bring 
forth children in the midst of privation and to see the 
° tmy creatures struggle for life, their recitals cut a cross 
section, as it were, in that world-old effort — the 
dying to live” which so inevitably triumphs over 
poverty and suffering. And yet their very familiarity 
with hardship may have been responsible for that 
s sentiment which traditionally ruins business, for a vote 
of the cooperators that the basket buyers be given one 
basket free out of every six, that the presentation of five 
purchase tickets should entitle the holders to a profit in 




SOME EARLY UNDERTAKINGS 121 

cal instead of stock “because it would be a shame to 
lep them waiting for the dividend,” was always 
pinted to by the conservative quarter-of-a-ton buyers 
; the beginning of the end. At any rate, at the close 
< the third winter, although the Association occupied 5 
[1 imposing coal yard on the southeast corner of the 
' ull-House block and its gross receipts were between 
iree and four hundred dollars a day, it became evident 
lat the concern could not remain solvent it it con- 
nued its philanthropic policy, and the experiment was 10 
laminated by the cooperators taking up their stock in 
le remaining coal. 

Our next cooperative experiment was much moie 
iccessful, perhaps because it was much more sponta- 
eous. 

At a meeting of working girls held at Hull-House 
uring a strike in a large shoe factory, the discussions 
lade it clear that the strikers who had been most easily 
Tightened, and therefore first to capitulate, were 
aturally those girls who were paying board and were 20 
fraid of being put out if they fell too far behind. Aftei 
recital of a case of peculiar hardship one of them ex- 
laimed: “Wouldn’t it be fine if we had a boarding club 
>f our own, and then we could stand by each othei in a 
ime like this?” After that events moved quickly. We 25 
-ead aloud together Beatrice Potter’s little book on 
Cooperation,” and discussed all the difficulties and 
'ascinations of such an undertaking, and on the first of 




i22 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


May, 1891, two comfortable apartments near Hul 
House were rented and furnished. 1 be Settlement wa 
responsible for the furniture and paid the first month 5 
rent, but beyond that the members managed the clu 
s themselves. The undertaking “marched,” as th 
French say, from the very first, and always on its owi 
feet. Although there were difficulties, none of then 
proved insurmountable, which was a matter for greai 
satisfaction in the face of a statement made by the head 
10 of the United States Department of Labor, who, on 2 
visit to the club when it was but two years old, said that 
his department had investigated many cooperative 
undertakings, and that none founded and managed by 
women had ever succeeded. At the end of the third 
15 year the club occupied all of the six apartments which 
the original building contained, and numbered fifty 
members. 

It was in connection with our efforts to secure a 
building for the Jane Club, that we first found ourselves 
20 in the dilemma between the needs of our neighbors and 
the kind-hearted response upon which we had already 
come to rely for their relief. The adapted apartments 
in which the Jane Club was housed were inevitably more 
01 less uncomfortable, and we felt that the success of 
2 5 the club justified the erection of a building for its sole 
use. > 

L p to that time, our history had been as the minor 
peace of the eail\ Church. We had had the most gener- 















SOME EARLY UNDERTAKINGS 123 

)US interpretation of our efForts. Of course, many 
>eople were indifferent to the idea of the Settlement; 
)thers looked on with tolerant and sometimes cynical 
imusement which we would often encounter in a good 
J;tory related at our expense; but all this was remote and 5 
unreal to us and we were sure that if the critics could 
Diit touch “the life of the people,” they would under¬ 
stand. 

The situation changed markedly after the Pullman 
strike, and our efForts to secure factory legislation later 10 

( brought upon us a certain amount of distrust and 
suspicion; until then we had been considered merely a 
kindly philanthropic undertaking whose new form gave 
us a certain idealistic glamour. But sterner tests weie 
coming and one of the first was in connection with the 15 
new building for the jane Club. A trustee of Hull- 
House came to see us one day with the good news that a 
friend of his was ready to give twenty thousand dollars 
with which to build the desired new clubhouse. When, 
however, he divulged the name of his generous friend, it 2 o 
proved to be that of a man who was notorious for under¬ 
paying the girls in his establishment and concerning 
whom there were even darker stories. It seemed clearly 
impossible to erect a clubhouse for working girls with 
such money and we at once said that we must decline 25 
the offer. The trustee of Hull-House was put in the 
most embarrassing situation; he had, of course, induced 
the man to give the money and had had no thong it ut 





I2 4 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

that it would be eagerly received; he would now b 
obliged to return with the astonishing, not to say ir 
suiting, news that the money was considered unfit. 

In the long discussion which followed, it gradual! 
5 became clear to all of us that such a refusal could b 
valuable only as it might reveal to the man himself am 
to others, public opinion in regard to certain method: 
of money-making, but that from the very nature of the 
case our refusal of this money could not be made public 
i o because a representative of Hull-House had asked for it. 
However, the basic fact remained that we could not 
accept the money, and of this the trustee himself was 
fully convinced. This incident occurred during a period 
of much discussion concerning ‘‘tainted money” and is 
15 perhaps typical of the difficulty of dealing with it. It 
is impossible to know how far we may blame the in¬ 
dividual for doing that which all of his competitors and 
his associates consider legitimate; at the same time, 
social changes can only be inaugurated by those who 
20feel the unrighteousness of contemporary conditions, 
and the expression of their scruples may be the one 
opportunity lor pushing forward moral tests into that 
dubious area wherein wealth is accumulated. 

In the course of time a new clubhouse was built by 
25 an old friend of Hull-House much interested in working 
girls, and this has been occupied for twelve years by 
the very successful cooperating Jane Club. The in¬ 
cident of the early refusal is associated in my mind with 


SOME EARLY UNDERTAKINGS 125 


long talk upon the subject of questionable money I 
i teltl with the warden of Toynbee Hall, whom I visited 
t Bristol where he was then canon in the Cathedral, 
ly way of illustration he showed me a beautiful little 
hurch which had been built by the last slave-trading 5 
1 nerchant in Bristol, who had been much disapproved of 

i >y his' fellow townsmen and had hoped by this trans¬ 
nutation of ill-gotten money into exquisite Gothic 
rchitecture to reconcile himself both to God and man. 
Tis impulse to build may have been born from his own 1 
cruples or from the quickened consciences of his neigh- 
>ors who saw that the world-old iniquity of enslaving 
nen must at length come to an end. The Abolitionists 
nay have regarded this beautiful building as the fruit 
>f a contrite heart, or they may have scorned it as an 1 
ittempt to magnify the goodness of a slave trader and 
hus perplex the doubting citizens of Bristol in regard 
o the entire moral issue. 

Canon Barnett did not pronounce judgment on the 
Bristol merchant. He was, however, quite clear upon 2 
he point that a higher moral standard for industrial 
ife must be embodied in legislation as rapidly as possi¬ 
ble, that it may bear equally upon all, and that an 
ndividual endeavoring to secure this legislation must 
orbear harsh judgment. This was doubtless a sound 2 
position, but during all the period of hot discussion con¬ 
cerning tainted money I never felt clear enough on the 
|eneral principle involved, to accept th« many invita- 





126 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


tions to write and speak upon the subject, although' 
received much instruction in the many letters of d 
approval sent to me by radicals of various schools t 
cause I was a member of the university extension st;. 
s of the then new University of Chicago, the righteousne 
of whose foundation they challenged. 0 

A little incident of this time illustrated to me tl 
confusion in the minds of at least many older men b 
tween religious teaching and advancing morality. Or 
i o morning I received a letter from the head of a Setth 
ment in New York expressing his perplexity over th 
fact that his board of trustees had asked money from | 
man notorious for his unscrupulous business methods 
My correspondent had placed his resignation in thi 
is hands of his board, that they might accept it at an} 
time when they felt his utterances on the subject o 
tainted money were offensive, for he wished to be free 
to openly discuss a subject of such grave moral import. 
The very morning when my mind was full of the ques- 
20 tions raised by this letter, I received a call from the 
daughter of the same business man whom my friend 
considered so unscrupulous. She was passing through 
Chicago and came to ask me to give her some argu¬ 
ments which she might later use with her father to con- 
25 fate the charge that Settlements were irreligious. She 
said, \ ou see, he has been asked to give money to our 
Settlement and would like to do it, if his conscience was 
only clear; disapproves of Settlements because they 





SOME EARLY UNDERTAKINGS 


127 


;! ve no religious instruction; he has always been a very 
Gisvout man.” 

I remember later discussing the incident with Wash¬ 
ington Gladden 0 who was able to parallel it from his 
vn experience. Now that this discussion upon tainted s 

I ioney has subsided, it is easy to view it with a certain 
etachment impossible at the moment, and it is even 
ifficult to understand why the feeling should have been 
0 intense, although it doubtless registered genuine 
loral concern. 10 

There was room for discouragement in the many un- 
jccessful experiments in cooperation which were 
jarried on in Chicago during the early nineties; a 
arpenter shop on Van Buren Street near Halsted, a 
ibor exchange started by the unemployed, not so 15 
aradoxical an arrangement as it seems, and a very 
mbitious plan for a country colony which was finally 
arried out at Ruskin, Tennessee. In spite of failures, 
ooperative schemes went on, some of the same men 
ippearing in one after another with irrepressible 20 
>ptimism. I remember during a cooperative congress, 
vhich met at Hull-House in the World’s Fair summer, 
hat Mr. Henry D. Lloyd, 0 who collected records of 
:ooperative experiments with the enthusiasm with 
vhich other men collect coins or pictures, put before 2 5 
:he congress some of the remarkable successes in Ireland 
ind North England, which he later embodied in his 
book on “Copartnership.” One of the oldtime co- 







.28 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

operators denounced the modern method as “too mui 
like cut-throat business” and declared himself in fa\| 
of “principles which may have failed over and o\ • 
again, but are nevertheless as sound as the law ‘ 
5 gravitation.” Mr. Lloyd and I agreed that the fie 
old man presented as fine a spectacle of devotion to 
lost cause as either of us had ever seen, although v 
both possessed memories well stored with such romant 
attachments. 

io And yet this dream that men shall cease to wast 
strength in competition and shall come to pool thei 
powers of production, is coming to pass all over the fac 
of the earth. Five years later in the same Hull-Hous< 
hall in which the cooperative congress was held, ai 
15 Italian senator told a large audience of his fellow coun¬ 
trymen of the successful system of cooperative banks in 
north Italy and of their cooperative methods of selling 
produce to the value of millions of francs annually; still 
later Sir Horace Plunkett 0 related the remarkable 
20 successes in cooperation in Ireland. 

I have seldom been more infected by enthusiasm than 
I once was in Dulwich at a meeting of English co- 
operators where I was fairly overwhelmed by the fervor 
underlying the businesslike proceedings of the congress, 
2 5 and certainly when I served as a juror in the Paris Ex¬ 
position of 1900° nothing in the entire display in the 
department of Social Economy was so imposing as the 
building housing the exhibit, which had been erected by 






SOME EARLY UNDERTAKINGS 129 


v-operative trade-unions without the assistance of a 

ngle contractor. 

And so one’s faith is kept alive as one occasionally 
leets a realized ideal of better human relations. At 
last traces of successful cooperation are found even in 
dividualistic America. I recall my enthusiasm on the 
fiy when I set forth to lecture at New Harmony, 
idiana, for I had early been thrilled by the tale of 
obert Owen,° as every young person must be who is 
terested in social reform; I was delighted to find so 
uch of his spirit still clinging to the little town which 
id long ago held one of his ardent experiments, al- 
lough the poor old cooperators, who for many years 
aimed friendship at Hull-House because they heard 
iatwe“had once tried a cooperative coal association,” 
light well have convinced me of the persistency of the 
^operative ideal. 

Many experiences in those early years, although 
ivid, seemed to contain no illumination; nevertheless 
ley doubtless permanently affected our judgments 
^ncerning what is called crime and vice. I recall a 
Mes of striking episodes on the day when I took the 
ife and child, as well as the old godfather, of an Italian 
onvict to visit him in the State Penitentiary. When 
re approached the prison, the sight of its heavy stone 
alls and armed sentries threw the godfather into a 
aroxysm of rage; he cast his hat upon the ground and 
tamped upon it, tore his hair, and loudly fulminated in 


I o 


I 5 


2 o 


2 5 




130 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

weird Italian oaths, until one of the guards, seeing 1 
strange actions, came to inquire if “the gentleman w 
having a fit.” When we finally saw the convict, 1 
wife, to my extreme distress, talked of nothing but I 
s striped clothing, until the poor man wept with chagri 
Upon our return journey to Chicago, the little son, ag< 
eight, presented me with two oranges, so affectionate 
and gayly that I was filled with reflections upon tl 
advantage of each generation making a fresh star 
o when the train boy, finding the stolen fruit in my la 
violently threatened to arrest the child. But strang 
than any episode was the fact itself that neither tl 
convict, his wife, nor his godfather for a moment coi 
sidered him a criminal. He had merely gotten excite 
s over cards and had stabbed his adversary with a knif 
“Why should a man who took his luck badly be kep 
forever from the sun? was their reiterated inquiry. 

I recall oui peiplexity over the first girls who ha< 
“gone astray,” the poor, little, forlorn objects 
o fifteen and sixteen years old, with their moral nature 
apparently untouched and unawakened; one of then 
whom the police had found in a professional house am 
asked us to shelter for a few days until she could be use( 
as a witness, was clutching a battered doll which sh< 
5 had kept with her during her six months of an “evi 
life.” Two of these prematurely aged children came t( 
us one day directly from the maternity ward of th< 
Cook County hospital, each with a baby in her arms 






SOME EARLY UNDERTAKINGS 131 

; king for protection, because they did not want to go 

f me for fear of '‘being licked.” For them were no 
tfels nor idle living such as the story-books portrayed, 
be first of the older women whom I knew came to Hull- 
buse to ask that her young sister, who was about to 
rive from Germany, might live near us; she wished to 
d her respectable work and wanted her to have the 
lecent pleasures” that Hull-House afforded. After 

J e arrangement had been completed and I had in a 
sasure recovered from my astonishment at the 
isinesslike way in which she spoke of her own life, I 
tntured to ask her history. In a very few words she 
tld me that she had come from Germany as a music 
tacher to an American family. At the end of two 
yars, in order to avoid a scandal involving the head of 
te house, she had come to Chicago where her child was 
brn, but when the remittances ceased after its death, 
fiding herself without home and resources, she had 
jadually become involved in her present mode of life, 
ly dint of utilizing her family solicitude, we finally in¬ 
deed her to move into decent lodgings before her sister 
drived, and for a difficult year she supported herself by 
rr exquisite embroidery. At the end of that time, she 
jive up the struggle, the more easily as her young sister, 
jell established in the dressmaking department of a 
Irge shop, had begun to suspect her past life. 

Rut discouraging as these and other similar efforts 
<ten were, nevertheless the difficulties were infinitely 



i 3 2 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE j 

less in those days when we dealt with fallen girls 
than in the years following when the “white sla^ 
traffic” became gradually established and when agoi 
ized parents, as well as the victims themselves, we: ‘ 
s totally unable to account for the situation. In the ligl 
of recent disclosures, it seems as if we were unaccoun 
ably dull not to have seen what was happening, especia 
ly to the Jewish girls among whom “the home trade (1 
the white slave traffic” was first carried on and wh 
owere thus made to break through countless generatior 
of chastity. WE early encountered the difficulties c ! 
that old problem of restoring the woman, or even tli 
child, into the society she has once outraged. I wel 
remember our perplexity when we attempted to hel] 

5 two girls straight from a Virginia tobacco factory, wE 
had been decoyed into a disreputable house whea 
innocently seeking a lodging on the late evening of thei 
arrival. Although they had been rescued promptly, th< 
stigma remained, and we found it impossible to permi 
othem to join any of the social clubs connected will 
Hull-House, not so much because there was danger o\ 
contamination, as because the parents of the clul 
members would have resented their presence most hotly 
One of our trustees succeeded in persuading a repentant 
5 girl, fourteen years old, whom we tried to give a fresh 
start in another part of the city, to attend a Sunday 
School class of a large Chicago church. The trustee 
hoped that the contact with nice girls, as well as the 






SOME EARLY UNDERTAKINGS 133 

loral training, would help the poor child on her hard 
)ad. But unfortunately tales of her shortcomings 
bached the superintendent who felt obliged, in order 
) protect the other girls, to forbid her the school. She 
ame back to tell us about it, defiant as well as dis- 
ouraged, and had it not been for the experience with 
ur own clubs, we could easily have joined her indig- 
ation over a church which ‘‘acted as if its Sunday 
chool was a show window for candy kids.” 

In spite of poignant experiences or, perhaps, because 
f them, the memory of the first years at Hull-House is 
tore or less blurred with fatigue, for we could of course 
.ecome accustomed only gradually to the unending 
ctivity and to the confusion of a house constantly fili¬ 
ng and refilling with groups of people. Ihe little 
hildren who came to the kindergarten in the morning 
vere followed by the afternoon clubs of older children, 
tnd those in turn made way for the educational and 
ocial organizations of adults, occupying every room in 
he house every evening. All one’s habits of living had 
o be readjusted, and any student’s tendency to sit with 
i book by the fire was of necessity definitely abandoned. 

To thus renounce “ the luxury of personal preference” 
vas, however, a mere trifle compared to our perplexity 
Tver the problems of an industrial neighborhood situ¬ 
ated in an unorganized city. Life pressed hard in many 
directions and yet it has always seemed to me rather 
nteresting that when we were so distressed over its 





134 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

stern aspects and so impressed with the lack of muni 
ipal regulations, the first building erected for Hu 
House should have been designed for an art gallery, f 
although it contained a reading-room on the first flo< 

5 and a studio above, the largest space on the secor 
floor was carefully designed and lighted for art exhibit 
which had to do only with the cultivation of that whic 
appealed to the powers of enjoyment as over against 
wage-earning capacity. It was also significant that 
o Chicago business man, fond of pictures himself, respond 
ed to this first appeal of the new and certainly puzzlin 
undertaking called a Settlement. 

The situation was somewhat complicated by the fac 
that at the time the building was erected in 1891,0m 
s free lease of the land upon which Hull-House stood ex 
pired in 1895. The donor of the building, however 
overcame the difficulty by simply calling his gift ; 
donation of a thousand dollars a year. This restrictior 
of course necessitated the simplest sort of a structure, 
o although I remember on the exciting day when the new 
building was promised to us, that I looked up my 
European notebook which contained the record of my 
experience in Ulm, hoping that I might find a description 
of what I then thought 6< a. Cathedral of Humanity ” 
5 ought to be. 1 he description was “ low and widespread- 
ing as to include all men in fellowship and mutual 
responsibility even as the older pinnacles and spires 
indicated communion with God.** 1 he description did 






SOME EARLY UNDERTAKINGS 


i35 


«ot prove of value as an architectural motive I am 
fraid, although the architects, who have remained our 
iends through all the years, performed marvels with 
combination of complicated demands and little money. 
it the moment when I read this girlish outbreak it 5 
ave me much comfort, for in those days in addition to 
ur other perplexities Hull-House was often called 
rreligious. 

These first buildings were very precious to us and it 
fforded us the greatest pride and pleasure as one 1 
Imilding after another was added to the Hull-House 
;roup. They clothed in brick and mortar and made 
dsible to the world that which we were trying to do; 
hey stated to Chicago that education and recreation 
>ught to be extended to the immigrants. The boys 1 
:ame in great numbers to our provisional gymnasium 
itted up in a former saloon, and it seemed to us quite as 
latural that a Chicago man, fond of athletics, should 
^rect a building for them, as that the boys should 
:lamor for more room. 

I do not wish to give a false impression, for we were 
often bitterly pressed for money and worried by the 
.prospect of unpaid bills, and we gave up one golden 
scheme after another because we could not afford it, we 
^cooked the meals and kept the books and washed the 2 
windows without a thought of hardship if we thereby 
saved money for the consummation of some aidcntly 
desired undertaking. 




136 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

But in spite of our financial stringency, I always be¬ 
lieved that money would be given when we had once 
clearly reduced the Settlement idea to the actual deed. 
This chapter, therefore, would be incomplete if it did 
s not record a certain theory of nonresistance or rather 
universal good will which I had worked out in con¬ 
nection with the Settlement idea and which was later 
so often and so rudely disturbed. At that time I had 
come to believe that if the activities of Hull-House 
owere ever misunderstood, it would be either because 
there was not time to fully explain or because our 
motives had become mixed, for I was convinced that 
disinterested action was like truth or beauty in its 
lucidity and power of appeal, 
s But more gratifying than any understanding or re¬ 
sponse from without could possibly be, was the con¬ 
sciousness that a growing group of residents was 
gathering at Hull-House, held together in that soundest 
of all social bonds, the companionship of mutual inter- 
o ests. These residents came primarily because they were 
genuinely interested in the social situation and believed 
that the Settlement was valuable as a method of ap¬ 
proach to it. A house in which the men residents lived 
was opened across the street, and at the end of the first 
5 five years the Hull-House residential force numbered 
fifteen, a majority of whom still remain identified with 
the Settlement. 





SOME EARLY UNDERTAKINGS 137 

Even in those early years we caught glimpses of the 
Fact that certain social sentiments, which are “the 
difficult and cumulating product of human growth” 
and which like all higher aims live only by communion 
and fellowship, are cultivated most easily in the foster- 5 
ng soil of a community life. 

Occasionally I obscurely felt as if a demand were 
aeing made upon us for a ritual which should express 
and carry forward the hope of the social movement. I 
vas constantly bewildered by the number of requests I 10 
eceived to officiate at funeral services and by the 
:urious confessions made to me by total strangers. For 
1 time I accepted the former and on one awful occasion 
urnished “the poetic part” of a wedding ceremony 
eally performed by a justice of the peace, but I soon 15 
earned to steadfastly refuse such offices, although I saw 
hat for many people without church affiliations the 
/ague humanitarianism the Settlement represented was 
he nearest approach they could find to an expression of 
heir religious sentiments. 20 

These hints of what the Settlement might mean to at 
east a few spirits among its contemporaries became 
dear to me for the first time one summer’s day in rural 
ingland, when I discussed with John Trevor his at- 
empts to found a labor church and his desire to turn 25 
he toil and danger attached to the life of the working- 
nan into the means of a universal fellowship. That 







i 3 8 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

very year a papyrus leaf brought to the British Museui 
from Egypt, containing among other sayings of Jesui 
“Raise the stone, and there thou shalt find me; cleav 
the wood and I am there,” was a powerful reminder t 
5 all England of the basic relations between daily labc 
and Christian teaching. 

In those early years at Hull-House we were, howevejj 
in no danger of losing ourselves in mazes of speculatio 
or mysticism, and there was shrewd penetration in 
i o compliment I received from one of our Scotch neighbon 
He came down Polk Street as I was standing near th 
foundations of our new gymnasium, and in response t 
his friendly remark that “Hull-House was spreadin 
out,” I replied that “Perhaps we were spreading ou 
is too fast.” “Oh, no,” he rejoined, “you can afford t< 
spread out wide, you are so well planted in the mud,’ 
giving the compliment, however, a practical turn, as h 
glanced at the deep mire on the then unpaved street 
It was this same condition of Polk Street which hac 
20caused the crown prince of Belgium 0 when he wa 
brought upon a visit to Hull-House to shake his hea( 
and meditatively remark, “ There is not such a street — 
no, not one — in all the territory of Belgium.” 

At the end of five years the residents of Hull-Hous( 
as published some first found facts and our reflection; 
thereon in a book called “Hull-House Maps anc 
Papers.” The maps were taken from information col- 




SOME EARLY UNDERTAKINGS 139 


2cted by one of the residents for the United States 
bureau ol Labor in the investigation into “the slums 
f great cities” and the papers treated of various 
eighborhood matters with candor and genuine concern 
not with skill. I he first edition became exhausted in 5 
wo years, and apparently the Boston publisher did 
ot consider the book worthy of a second. 



















CHAPTER VIII 
Problems of Poverty 

That neglected and forlorn old age is daily brougti 
to the attention of a Settlement which undertakes t 
bear its share of the neighborhood burden imposed b 
poverty, was pathetically clear to us during our firs 
s months of residence at Hull-House. One day a boy c 
ten led a tottering old lady into the House, saying tha 
she had slept for six weeks in their kitchen on a be 
made up next to the stove; that she had come when he 
son died, although none of them had ever seen her be 
x o fore; but because her son had “once worked in the sam 
shop with Pa she thought of him when she had nc 
where to go.” The little fellow concluded by sayin 
that our house was so much bigger than theirs that h 
thought we would have more room for beds. The oil 
15 woman herself said absolutely nothing, but looking o:f 
with that gripping fear of the poorhouse in her eyes, sh; 
was a living embodiment of that dread which is s 
heart-breaking that the occupants of the County In 
firmary themselves seem scarcely less wretched thai 
20 those who are making their last stand against it. 

This look was almost more than I could bear for onl 
a few days before some frightened women had biddei 


140 







PROBLEMS OF POVERTY 


141 


5 come quickly to the house of an old German woman, 
10m two men from the county agent’s office were at- 
npting to remove to the County Infirmary. The 
or old creature had thrown herself bodily upon a 
.all and battered chest of drawers and clung there, 
itching it so firmly that it would have been impossible 
remove her without also taking the piece of furniture, 
e did not weep nor moan nor indeed make any human 

I md, but between her broken gasps for breath she 
aealed shrilly like a frightened animal caught in a 
slip. The little group of women and children gathered 
her door stood aghast at this realization of the black 
e::3ad which always clouds the lives of the very poor 
eSien work is slack, but which constantly grows more 
] minent and threatening as old age approaches. The 
j ighborhood women and I hastened to make all sorts 
promises as to the support of the old woman and the 
jnty officials, only too glad to be rid of their un- 
ppy duty, left her to our ministrations. This dread of 
2 poorhouse, the result of centuries of deterrent Poor 
w administration, seemed to me not without some 
;tification one summer when I found myself per- 
:ually distressed by the unnecessary idleness and 
jilornness of the old women in the Cook County In¬ 
nary, many of whom I had known in the years when 
i :ivity was still a necessity, and when they yet felt 
stlingly important. To take away from an old 
man whose life has been spent in household cares all 







i 4 2 twenty years at hull-house 

the foolish little belongings to which her affections cliu 
and to which her very fingers have become accustome 
is to take away her last incentive to activity, almost 
life itself. To give an old woman only a chair and 
s bed, to leave her no cupboard in which her treasur 
may be stowed, not only that she may take them 01 
when she desires occupation, but that her mind m< 
dwell upon them in moments of reverie, is to redm 
living almost beyond the limit of human endurance, 
o The poor creature who clung so desperately to h« 
chest of drawers was really clinging to the last remnai 
of normal living — a symbol of all she was asked i 
renounce. For several years after this summer I ii 
vited five or six old women to take a two weeks’ vac 
s tion from the poorhouse which they eagerly and eve 
gayly accepted. Almost all the old men in the Count 
Infirmary wander away each summer taking the 
chances for finding food or shelter and return much r 
freshed by the little “tramp,” but the old women ca 
o not do this unless they have some help from the outsid 
and yet the expenditure of a very little money secur 
for them the coveted vacation. I found that a ie 
pennies paid their car fare into town, a dollar a wet 
procured a lodging with an old acquaintance; assure 
5 of two good meals a day in the Hull-House coffee-hou 
they could count upon numerous cups of tea among ol 
friends to whom they would airily state that they ha 
“come out for a little change” and hadn’t yet made u 









PROBLEMS OF POVERTY 


H 3 


ieir minds about “going in again for the winter.” 
hey thus enjoyed a two weeks’ vacation to the top of 
ieir bent and returned with wondrous tales of their 
Iventures, with which they regaled the other paupers 
iring the long winter. 

1 he reminiscences of these old women, their shrewd 
imments upon life, their sense of having reached a 
>int where they may at last speak freely with nothing 
* lose because of their frankness, makes them often the 
ost delightful of companions. I recall one of my 
tests, the mother of many scattered children, whose 
le bright spot through all the dreary years had been 
e wedding feast of her son Mike, — a feast which had 
:come transformed through long meditation into the 
:ctar and ambrosia of the very gods. As a farewell 
ng before she went “in” again, we dined together upon 
sicken pie, but it did not taste like “the chicken pie at 
ike’s wedding” and she was disappointed after all. 
Even death itself sometimes fails to bring the dignity 
id serenity which one would fain associate with old 
;e. I recall the dying hour of one old Scotchwoman 
lose long struggle to “keep respectable” had so em- 
ttered her, that her last words were gibes and taunts 
r those who were trying to minister to her. “So you 
< me in yourself this morning, did you? You only sent 
ings yesterday. I guess you knew when the doctor 
is coming. Don’t try to warm my feet with anything 
frit that old jacket that I’ve got there; it belonged to 








i 4 4 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE I 

my boy who was drowned at sea nigh thirty years a$i 
but it’s warmer yet with human feelings then any 1 
your damned charity hot-water bottles. ” Suddenly tf 
harsh gasping voice was stilled in death and I await 
5 the doctor’s coming shaken and horrified. 

The lack of municipal regulation already referred 
was, in the early days of Hull-House, paralleled by t 
inadequacy of the charitable efforts of the city and 
unfounded optimism that there was no real pover 
o among us. Twenty years ago there was no Chan 
Organization Society in Chicago and the Visiting Nut 
Association had not yet begun its beneficent work, wh i 
the relief societies, although conscientiously admin 
tered, were inadequate in extent and antiquated 
5 method. 

As social reformers gave themselves over to di 
cussion of general principles, so the poor invariably a 1 
cused poverty itself of their destruction. I recall 
certain Mrs. Moran, who was returning one rainy d; 
o from the office of the county agent with her arms full 
paper bags containing beans and flour which alone h 
between her children and starvation. Although she hi 
no money she boarded a street car in order to save h 
booty from complete destruction by the rain, and .1 
5 the burst bags dropped “flour on the ladies’ dresses 
and “beans all over the place,” she was sharply re] 
rimanded by the conductor, who was further exaspe 
ated when he discovered she had no fare. He put h< 





PROBLEMS OF POVERTY 


H5 


: , as she had hoped he would, almost in front of Hull- 
ouse. She related to us her state of mind as she 
lapped off the car and saw the last of her wares dis- 
ipearing; she admitted she forgot the proprieties and 
:ursed a little,” but, curiously enough, she pronounced 
r malediction, not against the rain nor the conductor, 

| >r yet against the worthless husband who had been 
nt up to the city prison, but, true to the Chicago spirit 
the moment, went to the root of the matter and 
lundly “cursed poverty.” 

This spirit of generalization and lack of organization 
mong the charitable forces of the city was painfully 
vealed in that terrible winter after the World’s fair, 0 
aen the general financial depression throughout the 
* untry was much intensified in Chicago by the numbers 
< unemployed stranded at the close of the exposition, 
hen the first cold weather came the police stations 


id the very corridors of the city hall were crowded by 
en who could afford no other lodging. They made 
ige demonstrations on the lake front, reminding one 
“ the London gatherings in Trafalgar Square. 0 
It was the winter in which Mr. Stead 0 wrote his in- 
ctment of Chicago. I can vividly recall his visits to 
ull-House, some of them between eleven and twelve 
clock at night, when he would come in wet and 


mgry from an investigation of the levee district, and, 

; hile he was drinking hot chocolate before an open fire, 
I ould relate in one of his curious monologues, his ex- 









146 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


perience as an out-of-door laborer standing in line wii 
out an overcoat for two hours in the sleet, that he migt 
have a chance to sweep the streets; or his adventui 
with a crook, who mistook him for one of his own ki 
s and offered him a place as an agent for a gambli 
house, which he promptly accepted. Mr. Stead \\ 
much impressed with the mixed goodness in Chicag 
the lack of rectitude in many high places, the simp] 
kindness of the most wretched to each other. Before 
io published “If Christ Came to Chicago” he made I 
attempt to rally the diverse moral forces of the city 
a huge mass meeting, which resulted in a tempora 
organization, later developing into the Civic Federatio 
I was a member of the committee of five appointed 
15 carry out the suggestions made in this remarkable mee 
ing, and our first concern was to appoint a committee 
deal with the unemployed. But when has a commits 
ever dealt satisfactorily with the unemployed? Reli 
stations were opened in various parts of the cit 
20 temporary lodging houses were established, Hull-Hou 
undertaking to lodge the homeless women who could 
received nowhere else; employment stations we 
opened giving sewing to the women, and street sweepi 
for the men was organized. It was in connection wi 
2 s the latter that the perplexing question of the danger 
permanently lowering wages at such a crisis, in t 
praiseworthy effort to bring speedy relief, was broug 
home to me. I insisted that it was better to have t 


[ 














PROBLEMS OF POVERTY 


147 


ien work half a clay for seventy-five cents than a whole 
iay for a dollar, better that they should earn three 
•ollars in two days than in three days. I resigned from 
Ihe street cleaning committee in despair of making the 
'est of the committee understand that, as our real ob- 
?ct was not street cleaning but the help of the unem- 
loyed, we must treat the situation in such wise that 
ne men would not be worse off when they returned to 
leir normal occupations. The discussion opened up 
tuations new to me and carried me far afield in perhaps 
le most serious economic reading I have ever done. 

A beginning also was then made toward a Bureau of 
Organized Charities, the main office being put in charge 
f a young man recently come from Boston, who lived 
t Hull-House. But to employ scientific methods for 
le first time at such a moment in volved difficulties, and 
le most painful episode of the winter for me came from 
n attempt on my part to conform to carefully received 
istructions. A shipping clerk whom I had known for 
long time had lost his place, as so many people had 
lat year, and came to the relief station established at 
lull-House four or five times to secure help for his 
imily. I told him one day of the opportunity for work 
n the drainage canal and intimated that if any ern- 
loyment were obtainable, he ought to exhaust that 
ossibility before asking for help. 1 he man replied 
lat he had always worked indoors and that he could 
ot endure outside work in winter. I am gratelul to 




■ u 

148 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

remember that I was too uncertain to be severe, a 
though I held to my instructions. He did not corr 
again for relief, but worked for two days digging on tf 
canal, where he contracted pneumonia and died a wee 
slater. I have never lost trace of the two little childre 
he left behind him, although I cannot see them withoi 
a bitter consciousness that it was at their expense 
learned that life cannot be administered by definit 
rules and regulations; that wisdom to deal with a man 
10 difficulties comes only through some knowledge of hi 
life and habits as a whole; and that to treat an isolate 
episode is almost sure to invite blundering. 

It was also during this winter that I became pei 
manently impressed with the kindness of the poor t 
15 each other; the woman who lives upstairs will willingl 
share her breakfast with the family below because sh 
knows they “are hard up”; the man who boarded wit 
them last winter will give a month’s rent because h 
knows the father of the family is out of work; the bake 
20 across the street, who is fast being pushed to the wall b 
his downtown competitors, will send across three loave 
of stale bread because he has seen the children lookin 
longingly into his window and suspects they are hungry 
There are also the families who, during times of busines 
2 s depression, are obliged to seek help from the county c 
some benevolent society, but who are themselves mos 
anxious not to be confounded with the pauper clasi 
with whom indeed they do not in the least belong 



PROBLEMS OF POVERTY 


149 


Charles Booth , 0 in his brilliant chapter on the unem- 
loyed, expresses regret that the problems of the work- 
*ig class are so often confounded with the problems of 
he inefficient and the idle, that although working 
eople live in the same street with those in need of 
harity, to thus confound two problems is to render the 
olution of both impossible. 

I remember one family in which the father had been 
ut of work for this same winter, most of the furniture 
ad been pawned, and as the worn-out shoes could not 
e replaced the children could not go to school. The 
lother was ill and barely able to come for the supplies 
nd medicines. Two years later she invited me to supper 
ne Sunday evening in the little home which had been 
ampletely restored, and she gave as a reason for the 
lvitation that she couldn’t bear to have me remember 
aem as they had been during that one winter, which 
ae insisted had been unique in her twelve years of 
larried life. She said that it was as if she had met me, 
ot as I am ordinarily, but as I should appear misshapen 
jdth rheumatism or with a face distorted by neuralgic 
ain; that it was not fair to judge poor people that way. 
he perhaps unconsciously illustrated the difference be- 
veen the relief-station relation to the poor and the 
ettlement relation to its neighbors, the latter wishing 
) know them through all the varying conditions of 
fe, to stand by when they are in distress, but by no 
leans to drop intercourse with them when normal 




1 5 o TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

prosperity has returned, enabling the relation to becorr 
more social and free from economic disturbance. 

Possibly something of the same effort has to be mad 
within the Settlement itself to keep its own sense c 
5 proportion in regard to the relation of the crowded cit 
quarter to the rest of the country. It was in the sprin 
following this terrible winter, during a journey to mee 
lecture engagements in California, that I found mysel 
amazed at the large stretches of open country am 
o prosperous towns through which w T e passed day by day 
whose existence I had quite forgotten. 

In the latter part of the summer of 1895, I served a 
a member on a commission appointed by the mayor o 
Chicago, to investigate conditions in the county poor 
5 house, public attention having become centered on i 
through one of those distressing stories, which exagger 
ates the wrong in a public institution while at the sam< 
time it reveals conditions which need to be rectified 
However necessary publicity is for securing reformec 
o administration, however useful such exposures may bt 
for political purposes, the whole is attended by such r 
waste of the most precious human emotions, by such s 
tearing of living tissue, that it can scarcely be endured 
Every time I entered Hull-House during the days o 
5 the investigation, I would find waiting for me fro 
twenty to thirty people whose friends and relative 
were in the suspected institution, all in such acute dis 
tress of mind that to see them was to look upon th 






PROBLEMS OF POVERTY 


151 


ctims of deliberate torture. In most cases my visitor 
Duld state that it seemed impossible to put their in- 
ilids in any other place, but if these stories were true, 
mething must be done. Many of the patients were 
ken out only to be returned after a few days or weeks 
meet the sullen hostility of their attendants and with 
.eir own attitude changed from confidence to timidity 
id alarm. 

This piteous dependence of the poor upon the good 
11 of public officials was made clear to us in an early 
perience with a peasant woman straight from the 
Ids of Germany, whom we met during our first six 
Tnths at Hull-House. Her four years in America had 
en spent in patiently carrying water up and down two 
^hts of stairs, and in washing the heavy flannel suits 
it iron foundry workers. For this her pay had averaged 
tirty-five cents a day. Three of her daughters had fallen 
>:tims to the vice of the city. The mother was be- 
vldered and distressed, but understood nothing. We 
lire able to induce the betrayer of one daughter to 
rirry her; the second, after a tedious lawsuit, supported 
it; child; with the third we were able to do nothing. 

]lis woman is now living with her family in a little 
fuse seventeen miles from the city. She has made two 
pyments on her land and is a lesson to all beholders 
a she pastures her cow up and down the railroad 
ticks and makes money from her ten acres. She did 
tit need charity for she had an immense capacity for 






152 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

hard work, but she sadly needed the service of 
State’s attorney office, enforcing the laws designed i 
the protection of such girls as her daughters. 

We early found ourselves spending many hours i 
5 efforts to secure support for deserted women, insurais 
for bewildered widows, damages for injured operate, 
furniture from the clutches of the installment sto. 
The Settlement is valuable as an information and inti 
pretation bureau. It constantly acts between t 
o various institutions of the city and the people for whd 
benefit these institutions were erected. The hospital 
the county agencies, and State asylums are often b 
vague rumors to the people who need them most. A 
other function of the Settlement to its neighborho 
s resembles that of the big brother whose mere preser 
on the playground protects the little one from bulli 
We early learned to know the children of hard driv 
mothers who went out to work all day, sometimes lea 
ing the little things in the casual care of a neighbor, b 
o often locking them into their tenement rooms. T 
first three crippled children we encountered in t 
neighborhood had all been injured while their moth( 
were at work: one had fallen out of a third-sto 
window, another had been burned, and the third had 
5 curved spine due to the fact that for three years he h; 
been tied all day long to the leg of the kitchen tab 
only released at noon by his older brother who hast 
ran in from a neighboring factory to share his lun 


PROBLEMS OF POVERTY 


i 53 


id. him. When the hot weather came the restless 
lildren could not brook the confinement of the stuffy 
oms, and, as it was not considered safe to leave the 
>ors open because of sneak thieves, many of the 
fildren were locked out. During our first summer an 
creasing number of these poor little mites would 
ander into the cool hallway of Hull-House. We kept 
em there and fed them at noon, in return for which 
e were sometimes offered a hot penny which had been 
dd in a tight little fist “ever since mother left this 
orning, to buy something to eat with. ” Out of kinder- 
irten hours our little guests noisily enjoyed the 
>spitality of our bedrooms under the so-called care of 
ly resident who volunteered to keep an eye on them, 
it later they were moved into a neighboring apart- 
ent under more systematic supervision. 

Hull-House was thus committed to a day nursery 
iiich we sustained for sixteen years, first in a little 
*tage on a side street and then in a building designed 
r its use called the Children’s House. It is now 
rried on by the United Charities of Chicago in a 
lely equipped building on our block, where the im- 
ligrant mothers are cared for as well as the children, 
ad where they are taught the things which will make 
]‘e in America more possible. Our early day nursery 
fought us into natural relations with the poorest 
’amen of the neighborhood, many of whom were bear- 
jg the burden of dissolute and incompetent husbands 


. 




154 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


i o 


i 5 


2 O 


2 5 


in addition to the support of their children. Some 
them presented an impressive manifestation of th 
miracle of affection which outlives abuse, neglect, ar 
crime, — the affection which cannot be plucked fro 
the heart where it has lived, although it may serve on 
to torture and torment. “Has your husband con 
back?*” you inquire of Mrs. S., whom you have know 
for eight years as an overworked woman bringing h< 
three delicate children every morning to the nursen 
she is bent under the double burden of earning th 
money which supports them and giving them th 
tender care which alone keeps them alive. The oldes 
two children have at last gone to work, and Mrs. £ 
has allowed herself the luxury of staying at home tw 
days a week. And now the worthless husband is bac 
again — the “gentlemanly gambler’' type who, throug 
all vicissitudes, manages to present a white shirtfron 
and a gold watch to the world, but who is dissolute 
idle, and extravagant. You dread to think how muc 
his presence will increase the drain upon the family exj 
chequer, and you know that he stayed away until 
was certain that the children were old enough to ear 
money for his luxuries. Mrs. S. does not pretend t 
take his return lightly, but she replies in ail seriousn 
and simplicity, “You know my feeling for him h 
never changed. You may think me foolish, but I w 
always proud of his good looks and educated appear 
ance. I was lonely and homesick during those eigh 










PROBLEMS OF POVERTY 


155 

ears when the children were little and needed so much 
octoring, but I could never bring myself to feel hard 
oward him, and I used to pray the good Lord to keep 
im from harm and bring him back to us; so, of course, 

’m thankful now.” She passes on with a dignity which 5 
ives one a new sense of the security of affection. 

I recall a similar case of a woman who had supported 
er three children for five years, during which time her 
issolute husband constantly demanded money for 
rink and kept her perpetually worried and intimidated. 1 o 
)ne Saturday, before the “blessed Easter,” he came 
ack from a long debauch, ragged and filthy, but in a 
tate of lachrymose repentance. The poor wife received 
im as a returned prodigal, believed that his remorse 
pould prove lasting, and felt sure that if she and the is 
hildren w£nt to church with him on Easter Sunday and 
e could be induced to take the pledge before the priest, 

11 their troubles would be ended. After hours of 
igorous effort and the expenditure of all her savings, he 
nally sat on the front doorstep the morning of Easter 20 
unday, bathed, shaved, and arrayed in a fine new suit 
f clothes. She left him sitting there in the reluctant 
pring sunshine while she finished washing and dressing 
lie children. When she finally opened the front door 
Tth the three shining children that they might all set 25 
:>rth together, the returned prodigal had disappeared, 
nd was not seen again until midnight, when he came 
ack in a glorious state of intoxication from the pro- 



156 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

ceeds of his pawned clothes and clad once more in tl 
dingiest attire. She took him in without comment, on 
to begin again the wretched cycle. There were of cour 
instances of the criminal husband as well as of the mer 
5 ly vicious. I recall one woman who, during seven year 
never missed a visiting day at the penitentiary whf 
she might see her husband, and whose little children : 
the nursery proudly reported the messages from fath< 
with no notion that he was in disgrace, so absolute] 
o did they reflect the gallant spirit of their mother. 

While one was filled with admiration for these hero 
women, something was also to be said for some of tl 
husbands, for the sorry men who, for one reason or ai 
other, had failed in the struggle of life. Sometimes th 
s failure was purely economic and the men were con 
petent to give the children, whom they were not abl 
to support, the care and guidance and even educatio 
which were of the highest value. Only a few month 
ago I met upon the street one of the early nurser 
o mothers who for five years had been living in anotht 
part of the city, and in response to my query as to th 
welfare of her five children, she bitterly replied, “ All c 
them except Mary have been arrested at one time o 
another, thank you.” In reply to my remark that 
5 thought her husband had always had such admirabl 
control over them, she burst out, “That has been th 
whole trouble. I got tired taking care of him and didn’ 




PROBLEMS OF POVERTY 157 

dieve that his laziness was all due to his health, as he 
lid, so I left him and said that I would support the 
fildren, but not him. From that minute the trouble 
ith the four boys began. I never knew what they were 

I oing, and after every sort of a scrape I finally put Jack 5 
nd the twins into institutions where I pay for them, 
ae has gone to work at last, but with a disgraceful 
icord .behind him. I tell you I ain’t so sure that be- 
ause a woman can make big money that she can be 
oth father and mother to her children.” . 10 

As I walked on, I could but wonder in which particu- 
ir we are most stupid, — to judge a man s worth so 
alely by his wage-earning capacity that a good wife 
eels justified in leaving him, or in holding fast to that 
/retched delusion that a woman can both support and is 
urture her children. 

One of the most piteous revelations of the futility of 
he latter attempt came to me through the mother of 
i Goosie,” as the children for years called a little boy 
vho, because he was brought to the nursery wrapped 2 o 
ip in his mother’s shawl, always had his hair filled with 
he down and small feathers from the feather brush 
actory where she worked. One March morning, 
doosie’s mother was hanging out the washing on a shed 
oof at six o’clock, doing it thus early before she left for a s 
:he factory. Five-year-old Goosie was trotting at her 
leels handing her clothespins, when he was suddenly 







158 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

blown off the roof by the high wind into the alley belo : 
His neck was broken by the fall and as he lay piteo 
and limp on a pile of frozen refuse, his mother cheeri 
called him to “climb up again,” so confident do ove 
5 worked mothers become that their children cannot g 
hurt. After the funeral, as the poor mother sat in tl 
nursery postponing the moment when she must g 
back to her empty rooms, I asked her, in a futile effbi 
to be of comfort, if there was anything more we coul 
iodo for her. The overworked, sorrow-stricken woma 
looked up and replied, “If you could give me m 
wages for to-morrow, I would not go to work in th 
factory at all. I would like to stay at home all day an< 
hold the baby. Goosie was always asking me to tak 
15him and I never had any time.” This statement re 
vealed the condition of many nursery mothers who an 
obliged to forego the joys and solaces which belong t( 
even the most poverty-stricken. The long hours oi 
factory labor necessary for earning the support of a 
20child leave no time for the tender care and caressing) 
which may enrich the life of the most piteous baby. 

With all of the efforts made by modern society to 
nurture and educate the young, how stupid it is to 
permit the mothers of young children to spend them- 
2 5 selves in the coarser work of the world! It is curiously 
inconsistent that with the emphasis which this genera¬ 
tion has placed upon the mother and upon the pro- 











PROBLEMS OF POVERTY 


i59 


mgation of infancy, we constantly allow the waste of 
his most precious material. I cannot recall without 
idignation a recent experience. I was detained late 
ne evening in an office building by a prolonged com- 
littee meeting of the Board of Education. As I came 5 
ut at eleven o’clock, I met in the corridor of the four- 
eenth floor a woman whom I knew, on her knees 
crubb'ing the marble tiling. As she straightened up to 
reet me, she seemed so wet from her feet up to her 
hin that I hastily inquired the cause. Her reply was 10 
hat she left home at five o’clock every night and had 
o opportunity for six hours to nurse her baby. Her 
lother’s milk mingled with the very water with which 
he scrubbed the floors until she should return at mid- 
ight, heated and exhausted, to feed her screaming 15 
hild with what remained within her breasts. 

These are only a few of the problems connected with 
he lives of the poorest people with whom the residents 
n a Settlement are constantly brought in contact. 

I cannot close this chapter without a reference to that 2 o 
allant company of men and women among whom my 
cquaintance is so large, who are fairly indifferent to 
tarvation itself because of their preoccupation with 
! ligher ends. Among them are visionaries and en- 
husiasts, unsuccessful artists, writers, and reformers. 25 
por many years at Hull-House, we knew a well-bred 
jerman woman who was completely absorbed in the 





160 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


experiment of expressing musical phrases and melodi 
by means of colors. Because she was small and d 
formed, she stowed herself into her trunk every ni gh 
where she slept on a canvas stretched hammock-wi^ 
s from the four corners and her food was of the meageres 
nevertheless if a visitor left an offering upon her tabl 1 
it was largely spent for apparatus or delicately colore 
silk floss, with which to pursue the fascinating exper 
ment. Another sadly crippled old woman, the wido 1 
o of a sea captain, although living almost exclusive! 
upon malted milk tablets as affording a cheap form c 
prepared food, was always eager to talk of the beautift 
illuminated manuscripts she had sought out in he 
travels and to show specimens of her own work as ai 
5 illuminator. Still another of these impressive oh 
women was an inveterate inventor. Although she ha< 
seen prosperous days in England, when we knew her 
she subsisted largely upon the samples given away a 
the demonstration counters of the department stores 
o and on bits of food which she cooked on a coal shovel ir 
the furnace of the apartment house whose basemen 
back room she occupied. Although her inventions wert 
not practicable, various experts to whom they were 
submitted always pronounced them suggestive anc 
5 ingenious. I once saw her receive this complimentary 
verdict — ‘‘this ribbon to stick in her coat”°— with 
such dignity and gravity, that the words of condolence 
for her financial disappointment, died upon my lips. 














PROBLEMS OF POVERTY . 


161 


These indomitable souls are but three out of many, 
Tom I might instance to prove that those who are 
andicapped in the race for life’s goods, sometimes play 
( magnificent trick upon the jade, life herself, by ceasing 
) know whether or not they possess any of her tawdry s 
,oods and chattels. 


1 





CHAPTER IX 

A Decade of Economic Discussion 




I o 


I 5 


2 O 


The Hull-House residents were often bewildered b 
the desire for constant discussion which characterize 
Chicago twenty years ago, for although the resident 
in the early Settlements were in many cases youn 
persons, who had sought relief from the consciousnes 
of social maladjustment in the “anodyne of work 
afforded by philanthropic and civic activities, thei 
former experiences had not thrown them into company 
with radicals. The decade between 1890-1900 was, ii 
Chicago, a period of propaganda as over against con 
structive social effort; the moment for marching an( 
carrying banners, for stating general principles am 
making a demonstration, rather than the time for un 
covering the situation and for providing the legal meas 
ures and the civic organization through which nev 
social hopes might make themselves felt. 

When Hull-House was established in 1889, the event 
of the Haymarket riot° were already two years old, but 
during that time Chicago had apparently gone through 
the first period of repressive measures, and in the winter 
of 1889-1890, by the advice and with the active partici¬ 
pation of its leading citizens, the city had reached the 

162 











ECONOMIC DISCUSSION 


163 

inclusion that the only cure for the acts of anarchy was 
ee speech and an open discussion of the ills of which 
e opponents of government complained. Great open 
eetings were held every Sunday evening in the recital 
til of the then new auditorium, presided over by such 5 
hpresentative citizens as Lyman Gage,° and every 

J tssible shade of opinion was freely expressed. A man 
no spoke constantly at these meetings used to be 
n|>inted out to the visiting stranger as one who had been 
evolved with the group of convicted anarchists, and 10 
k' to doubtless would have been arrested and tried, but 
ei r the accident of his having been in Milwaukee when 
ni e explosion occurred. One cannot imagine such meet- 
ii gs being held in Chicago to-day, nor that such a man 
d ould be encouraged to raise his voice in a public as- 15 
ljmblage presided over by a leading banker. It is hard 
tell just what change has come over our philosophy 
over the minds of those citizens who were then con¬ 
duced that if these conferences had been established 
rlier, the Haymarket riot and all its sensational re- 20 
Its might have been avoided. 

At any rate, there seemed a further need for smaller 
lbs, where men who differed widely in their social 
eories might meet for discussion, where representatives 
J the various economic schools might modify each 25 
rher, and at least learn tolerance and the futility of 
e deavoring to convince all the world of the truth of one 
jisition. Fanaticism is engendered only when men, 






164 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

finding no contradiction to their theories, at last bel 
that the very universe lends itself as an exemplifica 
of one point of view. “The Working People’s So 
Science Club” was organized at Hull-House in 
s spring of 1890 by an English workingman, and 
seven years it held a weekly meeting. At eight o’cl 
every Wednesday night the secretary called to or * 
from forty to one hundred people; a chairman for 
evening was elected, a speaker was introduced who 
oallowed to talk until nine o’clock; his subject was t 
thrown open to discussion and a lively debate en 
until ten o’clock, at which hour the meeting was 
dared adjourned. The enthusiasm of this club seld 
lagged. Its zest for discussion was unceasing, and 
5 attempt to turn it into a study or reading club alw 
met with the strong disapprobation of the members 
In these weekly discussions in the Hull-House dr 
ing-room everything was thrown back upon gene 
principles and all discussion save that which “went 
othe root of things,” was impatiently discarded as 
unworthy, halfway measure. I recall one evening 
this club when an exasperated member had thrown o 
the statement that “Mr. B. believes that socialism w 
cure the toothache.” Mr. B. promptly rose to his fi 
s and said that it certainly would, that when every chile 
teeth were systematically cared for from the beginnin 
toothache would disappear from the face of the ear 
belonging, as it did, to the extinct competitive order 










ECONOMIC DISCUSSION 


0 ( 


165 


ie black plague had disappeared from the earth with 
le ill-regulated feudal regime of the Middle Ages. 
But,” he added, “why do we spend time discussing 
ifles like the toothache when great social changes are 
> be considered which will of themselves reform these 
inor ills?” Even the man who had been humorous, 
11 into the solemn tone of the gathering. It was, per- 
ips, here that the socialist surpassed every one else in 
ie fervor of economic discussion. He was usually a 
erman or a Russian with a turn for logical presenta- 
on, who saw in the concentration of capital and the 
owth of monopolies an inevitable transition to the 
" (cialistic state. He pointed out that the concentration 
' capital in fewer hands but increased the mass of 
lose whose interests were opposed to a maintenance 
its power, and vastly simplified its final absorption 
y the community; that monopoly “when it is finished 
f )th bring forth socialism.” Opposite to him, springing 
) in every discussion was the individualist, or, as the 
•cialist called him, the anarchist, who insisted that we 
1 iall never secure just human relations until we have 
quality of opportunity; that the sole function of the 
ate is to maintain the freedom of each, guarded by the 
! ice freedom of all, in order that each man may be able 
‘ > work out the problems of his own existence. 

That first winter was within three years of the Henry 
eorge° campaign in New York, when his adherents all 
,er the country were carrying on a successful and 


I o 


I 5 


2 o 


2 5 





66 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


effective propaganda. When Henry George hiir 
came to Hull-House one Sunday afternoon, the gyn 


il 


sium, which was already crowded with men to 1 


Father Huntington’s 0 address on “Why should a 
s thinker believe in Christ,” fairly rocked on its four 
tions under the enthusiastic and prolonged appla 
which greeted this great leader and constantly in 
rupted his stirring address, filled, as all of his speec 
were, with high moral enthusiasm and humanita 
x o fervor. Of the remarkable congresses held in connect 


ai 


with the World’s Fair, perhaps those inaugurated 
the advocates of single tax exceeded all others in v 
enthusiasm. It was possibly significant that all <i 
cussions in the department of social science had to 

1 s organized by partisans in separate groups. The v 

committee itself on social science, composed of Chic 
citizens, of whom I was one, changed from week 
week, as partisan members had their feelings hurt 
cause their causes did not receive “due recognitioi 

20 And yet in the same building adherents of the m 
diverse religious creeds, eastern and western, met 
amity and good fellowship. Did it perhaps indie 
that their presentation of the eternal problems of 
were cast in an older and less sensitive mold than t 

2 s presentation in terms of social experience, or was 

rather that the new social science was not yet a sciei 
at all but merely a name under cover of which we mi 
discuss the perplexing problems of the industrial sit 


: 
















ECONOMIC DISCUSSION 


. 167 

ni!)n? Certainly the difficulties of our committee were 
m t minimized by the fact that the then new science of 
biology had not yet defined its own field. The 
afiiversity of Chicago, opened only the year before the 
World’s Fair, was the first great institution of learning 5 
lat institute a department of sociology. 

3 In the meantime the Hull-House Social Science Club 
sw in numbers and fervor as various distinguished 
itople who were visiting the World’s Fair came to ad- 
dess it. I recall a brilliant Frenchwoman who was 10 
ed with amazement because one of the shabbiest men 
v lected a reading of Schopenhauer. 0 She considered 
e statement of another member most remarkable — 

Q at when he saw a carriage driving through the streets 
v cupied by a capitalist who was no longer even an 15 
ie trepreneur, he felt quite as sure that his days were 
1; mbered and that his very lack of function to society 
mid speedily bring him to extinction, as he did when 
10 saw a drunkard reeling along the same street. 

The club at any rate convinced the residents that no 20 
e so poignantly realizes the failures in the social 
ucture as the man at the bottom, who has been most 
ectly in contact with those failures and has suffered 
)st. I recall the shrewd comments of a certain sailor 
10 had known the disinherited in every country; of a 25 
lissian who had served his term in Siberia; of an old 
•1 shman who called himself an atheist but who in 
laments of excitement always blamed the good Lord 





168 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

for “setting supinely” when the world was so horrilj 
out of joint. 

It was doubtless owing largely to this club that Hu 
House contracted its early reputation for radicalisj 
5 Visitors refused to distinguish between the sentimeij 
expressed by its members in the heat of discussion aj 
the opinions held by the residents themselves. At tlj 
moment in Chicago the radical of every shade 
opinion was vigorous and dogmatic; of the sort tU 
o could not resign himself to the slow march of hum 
improvement; of the type who knew exactly ‘‘in wh 
part of the world Utopia 0 standeth.” 

During this decade Chicago seemed divided into v 
classes; those who held that ‘‘business is business” a 
5 who were therefore annoyed at the very notion of soc 
control, and the radicals, who claimed that nothi 
could be done to really moralize the industrial situati 
until society should be reorganized. 

A Settlement is above all a place for enthusiasms, 
ospot to which those who have a passion for the equaliz 
tion of human joys and opportunities are early a 
tracted. It is this type of mind which is in itself 
often obnoxious to the man of conquering busine 
faculty, to whom the practical world of affairs seems 
s supremely rational that he would never vote to chan) 
the type of it even if he could. The man of soci 
enthusiasm is to him an annoyance and an affront, f 
does not like to hear him talk and considers him per 









ECONOMIC DISCUSSION 


169 


nsafe.” Such a business man would admit, as an 
>tract proposition, that society is susceptible of 
edification and would even agree that all human 
titutions imply progressive development, but at the 
ne time he deeply distrusts those who seek to reform 
sting conditions. There is a certain common-sense 
ndation for this distrust, for too often the reformer 
he rebel who defies things as they are, because of the 
traints which they impose upon his individual desires 
her than because of the general defects of the system, 
len such a rebel poses for a reformer, his short- 
mings are heralded to the world, and his downfall is 
frished as an awful warning to those who refuse to 
prship “the god of things as they are.” 

\.nd yet as I recall the members of this early club, 
In those who talked the most and the least rationally 
< m to me to have been particularly kindly and “ safe. ” 
re most pronounced anarchist among them has long 
ize become a convert to a religious sect, holding 
kddhistic 0 tenets which imply little food and a distrust 
Hill action; he has become a wraith of his former self 
(i: he still retains his kindly smile, 
j n the discussion of these themes, Hull-House was of 
:c rse quite as much under the suspicion of one side as 
\ other. I remember one night when I addressed a 
lb of secularists, which met at the corner of South 
•listed and Madison streets, a rough looking man 
ted out: “You are all right now, but, mark my 







i7o TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


words, when you are subsidized by the millionaires, 
will be afraid to talk like this.” The defense of 


speech was a sensitive point with me, and I quickly 


>u 


it 


e- 




plied that while I did not intend to be subsidized 
5 millionaires, neither did I propose to be bullied 
workingmen, and that I should state my honest opin 
without consulting either of them. Fo my surprise, 1 
audience of radicals broke into applause, and the a 
cussion turned upon the need of resisting tyrar 
i o wherever found, if democratic institutions were 
endure. This desire to bear independent witness 


social righteousness often resulted in a sense of c 
promise difficult to endure, and at many times it see 
to me that we were destined to alienate everybody 
is should have been most grateful at that time to acc 
the tenets of socialism, and I conscientiously made 
effort, both by reading and by many discussions w 
the comrades. I found that I could easily give 
affirmative answer to the heated question, ” Don’t y 
20 see that just as the hand mill created a society witl 
feudal lord, so the steam mill creates a society with 
industrial capitalist?” But it was a little harder to g 
an affirmative reply to the proposition that the soc 
relation thus established proceeds to create principl 
2 5 ideas, and categories as merely historical and transito 
products. 

Of course I use the term “socialism” technically ai 
do not wish to confuse it with the growing sensitivenc 


















ECONOMIC DISCUSSION 


171 


ich recognizes that no personal comfort nor in- 
fadual development can compensate a man for the 
sery of his neighbors, nor with the increasing con- 
tion that social arrangements can be transformed 
ough man’s conscious and deliberate effort. Such a 5 
n inition would not have been accepted for a moment 
nhe Russians, who then dominated the socialist party 
cChicago and among whom a crude interpretation of 
ni: class conflict was the test of the faith, 
during those first years on Halsted Street nothing 10 
sis more painfully clear than the fact that pliable 
oman nature is relentlessly pressed upon by its physi- 
ir environment. I saw nowhere a more devoted effort 
inderstand and relieve that heavy pressure than the 
: ialists were making, and I should have been glad to 15 
\ r e had the comradeship of that gallant company had 
v:|y not firmly insisted that fellowship depends upon 
atity of creed. They repudiated similarity of aim 
l social sympathy as tests which were much too 
>e and wavering as they did that vague socialism 20 
ch for thousands has come to be a philosophy, or 
ler religion, embodying the hope of the world and the 
tection of all who suffer. 

also longed for the comfort of a definite social creed, 
ch should afford at one and the same time an ex- 


2 5 




lation of the social chaos and the logical steps 
aids its better ordering. I came to have an exag- 
ited sense of responsibility for the poverty in the 





172 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


midst of which I was living and which the socia 51 


constantly forced me to defend. My plight was not.i 


like that which might have resulted in my old da 


skepticism regarding foreordination, had I then l 
5 compelled to defend the confusion arising from 
clashing of free wills as an alternative to an accept; 
of the doctrine. Another difficulty in the way of acc 
ing this economic determinism, so baldly depenc 
upon the theory of class consciousness, constantly a 


when I lectured in country towns and there had 


- 


portunities to read human documents of prospei n 
people as well as those of my neighbors who w 
crowded into the city. The former were stoutly r 


conscious of any classes in America, and the class c t 
s sciousness of the immigrants was fast being broken i t 
by the necessity for making new and unpreceden; 
connections in the industrial life all about them. 

In the meantime, although many men of many mi 
met constantly at our conferences, it was amazing 
ofind the incorrigible good nature which prevai 
Radicals are accustomed to hot discussion and sh 
differences of opinion and take it all in the day’s W( 
I recall that the secretary of the Hull-House So 
Science Club at the anniversary of the seventh yea 
sits existence read a report in which he stated that 
far as he could remember, but twice during that t 
had a speaker lost his temper, and in each case it 1 











ECONOMIC DISCUSSION 


i73 


ai :n a college professor who “wasn’t accustomed to 
1 ng talked back to.” 

•He also added that but once had all the club members 
^ ted in applauding the same speaker; only Samuel 
1 les, who afterwards became “the golden rule” 
ia yor of T oledo, had been able to overcome all their 
T;matic differences, when he had set forth a plan of 
Towing a group of workingmen with a factory plant 
1 a working capital for experimentation in hours and 
^ges, quite as groups of scholars are endowed for 
er |earch. 

'Chicago continued to devote much time to economic 
Hussion and remained in a state of youthful glamour 
c, oughout the nineties. I recall a young Methodist 
Tister who, in order to free his denomination from 
% entanglement in his discussion of the economic and 
ial situation, moved from his church building into a 
]1 %hboring hall. The congregation and many other 
Tple followed him there, and he later took to the street 
Miners because he found that the shabbiest men liked 
tat the best. Professor Herron 0 filled to overflowing a 
vntown hall every noon with a series of talks en- 
ofea “Between Caesar and Jesus” — an attempt to 
ai >ly the teachings of the Gospel to the situations of 
dern commerce. A half dozen publications edited 
h some ability and much moral enthusiasm have 
sed away, perhaps because they represented 





174 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


t( 


pamphleteering rather than journalism and came 
natural end when the situation changed. Certs 
their editors suffered criticism and poverty on 
of the causes which they represented. 

5 Trades-unionists, unless they were also socialists, 
not prominent in those economic discussions, altho 
they were steaddy making an effort to bring order 
the unnecessary industrial confusion. They belon 
to the second of the two classes into which Mill div 
o all those who are dissatisfied with human life as ii 
and whose feelings are wholly identified with its rad 
amendment. He states that the thoughts of one c 
are in the region of ultimate aims, of “the highest id 
of human life,” while the thoughts of the other an 
5 the region of the “immediately useful and practic 
attainable.” 

The meetings of our Social Science Club were cari 
on by men of the former class, many of them wit 
strong religious bias, who constantly challenged 
o Church to assuage the human spirit thus torn 
bruised “in the tumult of a time disconsolate.” Th 
men were so serious in their demand for religious fell 
ship, and several young clergymen were so ready 
respond to the appeal, that various meetings were 
s ranged at Hull-House, in which a group of people r 
together to consider the social question, not in a sp 
of discussion, but in prayer and meditation. Th 
clergymen were making heroic efforts to induce th 


ii 

al 


tr 






4 


4 











rches to formally consider the labor situation, and 
d ing the years which have elapsed since then, many 


ECONOMIC DISCUSSION 


i75 


ominations of the Christian Church have organized 
Dr committees; but at that time there was nothing 


he sort beyond the society in the established Church 
'England “to consider the conditions of labor.” 


)uring that decade even the most devoted of that 
teer church society failed to formulate the fervid de- 
for juster social conditions into anything more con¬ 
ing than a literary statement, and the Christian 


r y ' - 

ialists, at least when the American branch held its 


' ual meeting at Hull-House, afforded but a striking 
^trayal of that “ betweenage mood” in which so many 
Sur religious contemporaries are forced to live. I 
'ember that I received the same impression when I 
:nded a meeting called by the canon of an English 
ledral to discuss the relation of the Church to labor. 
!: men quickly indicted the cathedral for its useless- 
>, and the canon asked them what in their minds 
ild be its future. The men promptly replied that 
r [ new social order would wish, of course, to preserve 
itiful historic buildings, that although they would 
niss the bishop and all the clergy, they would want 
etain one or two scholars as custodians and inter- 


:ers. “And what next?” the imperturbable ec- 


iastic asked. “We would democratize it,” replied 
men. But when it came to a more detailed descrip- 
of such an undertaking, the discussion broke into 







176 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


V? 

i 


i o 


i 5 


2 O 


2 5 


a dozen bits, although illuminated by much sh 
wisdom and affording a clew, perhaps as to the des 
tion of the bishop’s palace by the citizens of this 
town, who had attacked it as a symbol of sw 
prosperity during the bread riots of the earlier pa 
the century. 

On the other hand the workingmen who contini 
demand help from the Church thereby acknowl j 
their kinship, as does the son who continues to 
bread from the father who gives him a stone. I r 
an incident connected with a prolonged strike in Chi 
on the part of the typographical unions for an e 
hour day. The strike had been conducted in a 
orderly manner and the union men, convinced o 
justice of their cause, had felt aggrieved because o 
the religious publishing houses in Chicago had 
stantly opposed them. Some of the younger clerg> 
of the denominations who were friendly to the stri 
cause came to a luncheon at Hull-House, where 
situation was discussed by the representatives o 
sides. The clergymen, becoming much interested ir 
idealism with which an officer of the State Federa 
of Labor presented the cause, drew from him the s 
of his search for fraternal relation: he said tha 
fourteen years of age he had joined a church, hopin 
find it there; he had later become a member of 
fraternal organizations and mutual benefit socie 
and, although much impressed by their rituals, he 















ECONOMIC DISCUSSION 


177 


tppointed in the actual fraternity. He had finally 
id, so it seemed to him, in the cause of organized 
>r, what these other organizations had failed to give 
— an opportunity for sacrificial effort, 
hicago thus took a decade to discuss the problems 5 
irent in the present industrial organization and to 
sider what might be done, not so much against de¬ 
rate aggression as against brutal confusion and 
iect; quite as the youth of promise passes through a 
t of rose-colored hope before he settles in the land ic 
chievement where he becomes all too dull and literal 
ded. And yet as I hastily review the decade in 
zago which followed this one given over to dis- 
ion, the actual attainment of these early hopes, so 
is they have been realized at all, seems to have come 1 5 
1 men of affairs rather than from those given to 
culation. Was the whole decade of discussion an 
tration of that striking fact which has been likened 
ie changing of swords in Hamlet: that the abstract 
ds at length yield to the inevitable or at least grow 20 
ardent in their propaganda, while the concrete 
ds, dealing constantly with daily affairs, in the end 
onstrate the reality of abstract notions? 
remember w T hen Frederic Harrison visited Hull- 
[se that I was much disappointed to find that the 25 
tivists had not made their ardor for humanity a 
e potent factor in the English social movement, as I 
surprised during a visit from John Morley 0 to find 




178 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


m 

lk 


I o 


I 5 


2 O 


2 5 


that he, representing perhaps the type of man w 
political life seemed to have pulled away from 
ideals of his youth, had yet been such a champic 
democracy in the full tide of reaction. My observai 
were much too superficial to be of value and cert; 
both men were well grounded in philosophy and t 
of social reform and had long before carefully formu 
their principles, as the new English Labor Party, 
is destined to break up the reactionary period, is 
being created by another set of theorists. There 
certainly moments during the heated discussions of 
decade when nothing seemed so important as i M 
theory: this was borne in upon me one brilliant eve ^ 
at Hull-House when Beniamin Kidd,° author of 
much read “Social Evolution,” was pitted aga| 
Victor Berger 0 of Milwaukee, even then consider* \ 
rising man in the Socialist Party. 

At any rate the residents at Hull-PIouse discov i 
that while their first impact with city poverty a i 
them to groups given over to discussion of sc 
theories, their sober efforts to heal neighborhood 
allied them to general public movements which 
without challenging creeds. But while we discov 
that we most easily secured the smallest of much nee 
improvements by attaching our efforts to thos 
organized bodies, nevertheless these very organizat 
would have been impossible, had not the public c 


















ECONOMIC DISCUSSION 


i79 


V 


" ence been aroused and the community sensibility 
ickened by these same ardent theorists. 

s 1 review these very first impressions of the workers 
unskilled industries, living in a depressed quarter of 
t: > city, I realize how easy it was for us to see ex- 
■ >tional cases of hardship as typical of the average 
i‘, and yet, in spite of alleviating philanthropy and 
' or legislation, the indictment of Tolstoy applied to 
uscow thirty years ago still fits every American city: 
/herever we may live, if we draw a circle around us 
1 a hundred thousand, or a thousand, or even of ten 
es circumference, and look at the lives of those men 
e] )l women who are inside our circle, we shall find half- 
rved children, old people, pregnant women, sick and 
ik persons, working beyond their strength, who have 
rcjther food nor rest enough to support them, and who, 
this reason, die before their time; we shall see others, 
-grown, who are injured and needlessly killed by 
3 lgerous and hurtful tasks.” 

\.s the American city is awakening to self-con- 
msness, it slowly perceives the civic significance of 
se industrial conditions, and perhaps Chicago has 
n foremost in the effort to connect the unregulated 
t rgrowth of the huge centers of population, with the 
Dnishingly rapid development of industrial enter- 
>es; quite as Chicago was foremost to carry on the 
liminary discussion through which a basis was laid 


I o 


I 5 


2 o 


2 5 





180 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


7 a 


;r 


for like-mindedness and the coordination of divers 
I remember an astute English visitor, who had be 
guest in a score of American cities, observed that it 
hard to understand the local pride he constantly 
s countered; for in spite of the boasting on the pai 
leading citizens in the western, eastern, and sout 
towns, all American cities seemed to him essent li 
alike and all equally the results of an industry toiil 
unregulated by well-considered legislation, 
o I am inclined to think that perhaps all this ger 
discussion was inevitable in connection with the e 
Settlements, as they in turn were the inevitable re 
of theories of social reform, which in their full 
thusiasm reached America by way of England, onl 
s the last decade of the century. There must have 1 i 
tough fiber somewhere; for, although the resident 


li 




il 




Hull-House were often baffled by the radicalism wii 
the Social Science Club and harassed by the critic 
from outside, we still continued to believe that s 
o discussion should be carried on, for if the Settlen 
seeks its expression through social activity, it r 
learn the difference between mere social unrest 
spiritual impulse. 

The group of Hull-House residents, which by the 
5 of the decade comprised twenty-five, differed widely 
social beliefs, from the girl direct from the country 
looked upon all social unrest as mere anarchy, to 
resident, who had become a socialist when a studen 











ECONOMIC DISCUSSION 


181 


wurich, and who had long before translated from the 
ererman Engels’s 0 “Conditions of the Working Class in 
ngland,” although at this time she had been read out 
the Socialist Party because the Russian and German 
npossibilists suspected her fluent English, as she 
tljways lightly explained. Although thus diversified in 
tcial beliefs, the residents became solidly united through 
lr mutual experience in an industrial quarter, and we 
jcame not only convinced of the need for social con- 
in ol and protective legislation but also of the value of 
eais preliminary argument. 

res This decade of discussion between 1890 and 1900 
11 ready seems remote from the spirit of Chicago of 
ili-day. So far as I have been able to reproduce this 
birlier period, it must reflect the essential provisionality 
iff everything; “the perpetual moving on to something 
itlture which shall supersede the present,” that para- 
ic ount impression of life itself, which affords us, at one 
$ id the same time, ground for despair and for endless 
m id varied anticipation, 
ml 


I o 


I 5 


2 o 


e 


ni 








CHAPTER X 

Pioneer Labor Legislation in Illinois 

Our very first Christmas at Hull-House, when we ; 
yet knew nothing of child labor, a number of little gi 
refused the candy which was offered them as part 
the Christmas good cheer, saying simply that th 
5 “worked in a candy factory and could not bear t 
sight of it.” We discovered that for six weeks th 
had worked from seven in the morning until nine 
night, and they were exhausted as well as satiate 
The sharp consciousness of stern economic conditio 
iowas thus thrust upon us in the midst of the season 
good will. 

During the same winter three boys from a Hu 
House club were injured at one machine in a neig 
boring factory for lack of a guard which would ha'' 
15 cost but a few dollars. When the injury of one of the 
boys resulted in his death, we felt quite sure that t 
owners of the factory would share our horror and r 
morse, and that they would do everything possible i 
prevent the recurrence of such a tragedy. To our su 
20 prise they did nothing whatever, and I made my fir 
acquaintance then with those pathetic documen 
signed by the parents of working children, that the 

182 











LABOR LEGISLATION IN ILLINOIS 183 

11 make no claim for damages resulting from “care- 
sness.” 

The visits we made in the neighborhood constantly 
;covered women sewing upon sweatshop work, and 
;en they were assisted by incredibly small children, 
emember a little girl of four who pulled out basting 
•reads hour after hour, sitting on a stool at the feet of 
|r Bohemian mother, a little bunch of human misery, 
it even for that there was no legal redress, for the 
ly child labor law in Illinois, with any provision for 
forcement, had been secured by the coal miners’ 
ions, and was confined to children employed in mines. 
We learned to know many families in which the 
rking children contributed to the support of their 
rents, not only because they spoke English better 
an the older immigrants and were willing to take 
ver wages, but because their parents gradually found 
easy to live upon their earnings. A South Italian 
asant who has picked olives and packed oranges from 
toddling babyhood, cannot see at once the differ- 
|:e between the outdoor healthy work which he has 
rformed in the varying seasons, and the long hours of 
motonous factory life which his child encounters 
en he goes to work in Chicago. An Italian father 
ne to us in great grief over the death of his eldest 
Id, a little girl of twelve, who had brought the largest 
ges in to the family fund. In the midst of his genuine 
row he said: “She was the oldest kid I had. Now I 





184 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


shall have to go back to work again until the next 
is able to take care of me.” The man was only thir 
three and had hoped to retire from work at least dur 
the winters. No foreman cared to have him ir 
s factory, untrained and unintelligent as he was. It ^ 


much easier for his bright, English-speaking little \ 


to get a chance to paste labels on a box than for him 


i 


secure an opportunity to carry pig iron. The eff 
on the child was what no one concerned thought aboi 
oin the abnormal effort she made thus prematurely 
bear the weight of life. Another little girl of thirteeri 
Russian-Jewish child employed in a laundry at a hea < 


task beyond her strength, committed suicide, becai 


she had borrowed three dollars from a companion whij 
5 she could not repay unless she confided the story to 1 
parents and gave up an entire week’s wages — but wl I 
could the family live upon that week in case she d 
Her child mind, of course, had no sense of proportic 
and carbolic acid appeared inevitable, 
o While we found many pathetic cases of child lat 
and hard-driven victims of the sweating system w 
could not possibly earn enough in the short busy seas 
to support themselves during the rest of the year, 
became evident that we must add carefully collect 
s information to our general impression of neighborho 
conditions if we would make it of any genuine value. 

I here was at that time no statistical information 
Chicago industrial conditions, and Mrs. Flore 


" 








LABOR LEGISLATION IN ILLINOIS 185 

(elley,° an early resident of Hull-House, suggested to 
re Illinois State Bureau of Labor that they investigate 
r e sweating system in Chicago with its attendant child 
ri3or. The head of the Bureau adopted this suggestion 
v,d engaged Mrs. Kelley to make the investigation, 
fhen the report was presented to the Illinois Legisla¬ 
te, a special committee was appointed to look into the 
i iicaga conditions. I well recall that on the Sunday 
Oje members of this commission came to dine at Hull- 
Duse, our hopes ran high, and we believed that at 
Hist some of the worst ills under which our neighbors 
ajbre suffering would be brought to an end. 
iij As a result of its investigations, this committee 
n|:ommended to the Legislature the provisions which 
terwards became those of the first factory law of 

i inois, regulating the sanitary conditions of the sweat- 
d op and fixing fourteen as the age at which a child 

ii ight be employed. Before the passage of the law 
uld be secured, it was necessary to appeal to all 
;ments of the community, and a little group of us 
Idressed the open meetings of trades-unions and of 
nefit societies, church organizations, and social clubs 
erally every evening for three months. Of course the 
ost energetic help as well as intelligent understanding 

(me from the trades-unions. 1 he central labor body 
( Chicago, then called the 1 rades and Labor Assembly, 
hd previously appointed a committee of investigation 
1 inquire into the sweating system. 1 his committee 




186 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


consisted of five delegates from the unions and five 


side their membership. Two of the latter were resid 


of Hull-House, and continued with the unions in t 


well-conducted campaign until the passage of Illin* 
first Factory Legislation was secured, a statute wl 
has gradually been built upon by many public-spir 


citizens until Illinois stands well among the states 


it 


1 


I o 


I 5 


2 O 


2 5 


least in the matter of protecting her children. 
Hull-House residents that winter had their first exp 
ence in lobbying. I remember that I very much 
liked the word and still more the prospect of the lob 
ing itself, and we insisted that well-known Chic 
women should accompany this first little group 
Settlement folk who with trade-unionists moved u 
the state capitol in behalf of factory legislation, 
national or, to use its formal name, The Gent 
Federation of Women’s Clubs had been organized 
Chicago only the year before this legislation was 
cured. The Federation was then timid in regard to 
legislation because it was anxious not to frighten 
new membership, although its second president, M 
Henrotin, 0 was most untiring in her efforts to seci 
this law. 

It was, perhaps, a premature effort, though certaii 
founded upon a genuine need, to urge that a clai 
limiting the hours of all women working in factories 
workshops to eight a day, or forty-eight a week, shot 
he inserted in the first factory legislation of the Sta 













LABOR LEGISLATION IN ILLINOIS 187 

( Though we had lived at Hull-House but three years 
hen we urged this legislation, we had known a large 
umber of young girls who were constantly exhausted 
3 y night work; for whatever may be said in defense of 
I ight work for men, few women are able to endure it. 
\ man who works by night sleeps regularly by day, but 
woman finds it impossible to put aside the household 
uties which crowd upon her, and a conscientious girl 
>«nds it hard to sleep with her mother washing and 
;rubbing within a few feet of her bed. One of the most 
ainful impressions of those first years is that of pale, 
^stless girls, who worked regularly in a factory of the 
icinity which was then running full night time. These 
[iris also encountered a special danger in the early 
horning hours as they returned from work, debilitated 
:nd exhausted, and only too easily convinced that a 
rink and a little dancing at the end of the balls in the 
aloon dance halls, was what they needed to brace 
hem. One of the girls whom we then knew, whose 
ame, Chloe, seemed to fit her delicate charm, craving 
drink to dispel her lassitude before her tired feet 
hould take the long walk home, had thus been decoyed 
ito a saloon, where the soft drink was followed by an 
lcoholic one containing “knockout drops,” and she 
woke in a disreputable rooming house — too frightened 
nd disgraced to return to her mother. 

Thus confronted by that old conundrum of the inter- 
ependence of matter and spirit, the conviction was 



188 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


forced upon us that long and exhausting hours of w 
are almost sure to be followed by lurid and excit 
pleasures; that the power to overcome temptat 


f 


n 


reaches its limit almost automatically with that 
5 physical resistance. The eight-hour clause in this fi 
factory law met with much less opposition in t 
Legislature than was anticipated, and was enforced 
a year before it was pronounced unconstitutional 
the Supreme Court of Illinois. During the halcyi 
o months when it was a law, a large and enthusias 
Eight-Hour Club of working women met at Hull-Hou 
to read the literature on the subject and in every w 
to prepare themselves to make public sentiment in fav 
of the measure which meant so much to them. T 
s adverse decision in the test case, the progress of whi 
they had most intelligently followed, was a matter 


1 


great disappointment. The entire experience left < 
my mind a distrust of all legislation which was n 
preceded by full discussion and understanding, 
o premature measure may be carried through a legislatu 
by perfectly legitimate means and still fail to posse 
vitality and a sense of maturity. On the other hand, tl 
administration of an advanced law acts somewhat as 
referendum. I he people have an opportunity for tw 
5 years to see the effects of its operation. If they choo: 
to reopen the matter at the next General Assembly, 
can be discussed with experience and conviction; th 














LABOR LEGISLATION IN ILLINOIS 189 

ery operation of the law has performed the function 
f the “referendum” in a limited use of the term. 

1 Founded upon some such compunction, the sense 
hat the passage of the child labor law would in many 
iijases work hardship, was never absent from my mind 
uring the earliest years of its operation. I addressed 
i^s many mothers’ meetings and clubs among working 
^omen' as I could, in order to make clear the object of 
ythe law and the ultimate benefit to themselves as well 
stis to their children. I am happy to remember that I 
isever met with lack of understanding among the hard¬ 
working widows, in whose behalf many prosperous 
vdeople were so eloquent. These widowed mothers 
(Vould say, “Why, of course, that is what I am working 
iior — to give the children a chance. I want them to 
lave more education than I had”; or another, “That 
or why we came to America, and I don’t want to spoil 
ndis start, even although his father is dead”; or, “It’s 
ifferent in America. A boy gets left if he isn’t educat¬ 
ed.” There was always a willingness, even among the 
Poorest women, to keep on with the hard night scrub¬ 
bing or the long days of washing for the children’s sake, 
s The bitterest opposition to the law came from the 
dirge glass companies who were so accustomed to use 
die labor of children, that they were convinced the 
manufacturing of glass could not be carried on without 




1 9 o TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


Fifteen years ago the state of Illinois, as well 
Chicago, exhibited many characteristics of the pion 
country in which untrammeled energy and an 
start” were still the most highly prized generators 
5 success. Although this first labor legislation was 
bringing Illinois into line with the nations in 
modern industrial world, which ‘ have long b 
obliged for their own sakes to come to the aid of t. 
workers by which they live, — that the child, the you 
o person, and the woman may be protected from their o 
weakness and necessity, — ” nevertheless from t 
first it ran counter to the instinct and tradition, aim 
to the very religion of the manufacturers of the sta 
who were for the most part self-made men. 

5 This first attempt in Illinois for adequate facto 
legislation also was associated in the minds of busine 
men with radicalism, because the law was secured duri 
the term of Governor Altgeld 0 and was first enforc 
during his administration. While nothing in its gen 
oor spirit could be further from “anarchy” than facto 
legislation, and while the first law in Illinois was st 
far behind Massachusetts and New York, the fact th 
Governor Altgeld pardoned Irom the state s prison t 
anarchists who had been sentenced there after the Ha] 
5 market riot, gave the opponents of this most reasonab 
legislation a quickly utilized opportunity to couple 
with that detested word; the state document whi 
accompanied Governor Altgeld’s pardon gave these 


e 

: 














LABOR LEGISLATION IN ILLINOIS 191 

I nerous critics a further opportunity, because a magnan- 
iious action was marred by personal rancor, betraying 
|r the moment the infirmity of a noble mind. For all 
t these reasons this first modification of the undis- 
1 rbed control of the aggressive captains of industry, 5 
add not be enforced without resistance marked by 

! amatic episodes and revolts. The inception of the 
v had already become associated with Hull-House, 

Ld when its ministration was also centered there, we 
ievitably received all the odium which these first 10 
Forts entailed. Mrs. Kelley was appointed the first 
Jctory inspector with a deputy and a force of twelve 
Ispectors to enforce the law. Both Mrs. Kelley and 
} r assistant, Mrs. Stevens, lived at Hull-House; the 
trice was on Polk Street directly opposite, and one of 1 5 
te most vigorous deputies was the president of the 
ne Club. In addition, one of the early men residents, 
nee dean of a state law school, acted as prosecutor in 
te cases brought against the violators of the law. 
Chicago had for years been notoriously lax in the 20 
{ministration of law, and the enforcement of an un- 
ppular measure was resented equally by the president 
( a large manufacturing concern and by the former 
’ctim of a sweatshop who had started a place of his 
tm. Whatever the sentiments towards the new law on 2 5 
te part of the employers, there was no doubt of its 
(thusiastic reception by the trades-unions, as the 
scuring of the law had already come from them, and 




i 9 2 twenty years at hull-house 


through the years which have elapsed since, the 
perience of the Hull-House residents would coinc 


with that of an English statesman who said that 


common rule for the standard of life and the condit 


r 


n 


5 of labor may be secured by legislation, but it must 
maintained by trades unionism.” 

This special value of the trades-unions first beca 
clear to the residents of Hull-House in connection w 
the sweating system. We early found that the worn 
oin the sewing trades were sorely in need of help. 1 
trade was thoroughly disorganized, Russian and Poll 


11 

e; 


tailors competing against English-speaking tailors, i - 
skilled Bohemian and Italian women competing agaii 
both. These women seem to have been best help 
s through the use of the label when unions of specializ 
workers in the trade are strong enough to insist ti¬ 
the manufacturers shall “give out work” only to the 
holding union cards. It was certainly impressive wh 
the garment makers themselves in this way fina 
o succeeded in organizing six hundred of the Itali 
women in our immediate vicinity, who had finish ii 
garments at home for the most wretched and precario 
wages. To be sure, the most ignorant women only kn< 
that “you couldn’t get clothes to sew” from the plac 
5 where they paid the best, unless “you had a card,” b 
through the veins of most of them there pulsed t 
quickened blood of a new fellowship, a sense of comfo 











LABOR LEGISLATION IN ILLINOIS 193 

d aid which had been held out to them by their fellow- 
hrkers. 

During the fourth year of our residence at Hull- 
buse we found ourselves in a large mass meeting 
dently advocating the passage of a Federal measure 5 
lied the Sulzer Bill. Even in our short struggle with 
He evils of the sweating system it did not seem strange 
i at the center of the effort had shifted to .Washington, 
ir by that time we had realized that the sanitary 
^ulation of sweatshops by city officials, and a careful 10 

I forcement of factory legislation by state factory in¬ 
jectors will not avail, unless each city and state shall 

II able to pass and enforce a code of comparatively uni- 
%m legislation. Although the Sulzer Act failed to 
blize the Interstate Commerce legislation for its pur- 15 

i. se, many of the national representatives realized for 
3 e first time that only by federal legislation could their 
Hnstituents in remote country places be protected from 
lntagious diseases raging in New York or Chicago, for 

• any country doctors testify as to the outbreak of 20 
brlet fever in rural neighborhoods after the children 

ii. ve begun to wear the winter overcoats and cloaks 
e-iich have been sent from infected city sweatshops. 

Through our efforts to modify the sweating system, 
e Hull-House residents gradually became committed 25 
the fortunes of the Consumers’ League, an organiza¬ 
tion which for years has been approaching the question 




i 9 4 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

of the underpaid sewing woman from the point of v 
of the ultimate responsibility lodged in the consun 
It becomes more reasonable to make the presentat 
of the sweatshop situation through this League, as i 
s more effectual to work with them for the extensior 
legal provisions in the slow upbuilding of that code 
legislation which is alone sufficient to protect the ho 
from the dangers incident to the sweating system. 

The Consumers’ League seems to afford the b 
o method of approach for the protection of girls in dep; 
ment stores; I recall a group of girls from a neighbor 
“emporium” who applied to Hull-House for danc 
parties on alternate Sunday afternoons. In reply to < 
protest they told us they not only worked late ev< 
5 evening, in spite of the fact that each was supposed 
have “two nights a week off,” and every Sunday mo 
ing, but that on alternate Sunday afternoons they w 
required “to sort the stock.” Over and over aga 
meetings called by the Clerks Union and others, lu 
obeen held at Hull-House protesting against these 
credibly long hours. Little modification has co 
about, however, during our twenty years of residen 
although one large store in the Bohemian quarter clo 
all day on Sunday and many of the others for th 
s nights a week. In spite of the Sunday work, these g 
prefer the outlying department stores to those do 
town; there is more social intercouse with the custom 
more kindliness and social equality between the sal 










LABOR LEGISLATION IN ILLINOIS 195 

men and the managers, and above all the girls have 
j; protection naturally afforded by friends and neigh¬ 
's and they are free from that suspicion which so 
en haunts the girls down town, that their fellow- 
rkers may not be “nice girls.” 5 

n the first years of Hull-House we came across no 
des-unions among the women workers, and I think, 
haps,.that only one union, composed solely of women, 

5 to be found in Chicago then — that of the book- 
ders. I easdy recall the evening when the president i 0 
this pioneer organization accepted an invitation to 
e dinner at Hull-House. She came in rather a 
alcitrant mood, expecting to be patronized and so 
picious of our motives, that it was only after she had 
n persuaded to become a guest of the house for 15 
i»eral weeks in order to find out about us for herself, 
t she was convinced of our sincerity and of the ability 
‘outsiders” to be of any service to working women. 

: afterward became closely identified with Hull- 
use, and her hearty cooperation was assured until 20 
moved to Boston and became a general organizer 
the American Federation of Labor, 
he women shirt makers and the women cloak makers 
e both organized at Hull-House as was also the 
rcas Federal Labor Union, which had been founded 25 
laugh the efforts of a working woman, then one of 
| residents. The latter union met once a month in 
„ drawing-room. It was composed of representatives 





196 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

from all the unions in the city which included womer 
their membership and also received other women 
sympathy with unionism. It was accorded represen 
tion in the central labor body of the city, and latei 
s joined its efforts with those of others to found i 
Woman’s Union Label League. In what we considei 
a praiseworthy effort to unite it with other organ! 
tions, the president of a leading Woman’s Club appf] 
for membership. We were so sure of her election tl 
oshe stood just outside of the drawing-room door, or, 
trades-union language, “the wicket gate, while 1 
name was voted upon. To our chagrin she did not 
ceive enough votes to secure her admission, not becai 
the working girls, as they were careful to state, did i 
s admire her, but because she “seemed to belong to t 
other side.” Fortunately, the big-minded woman 
thoroughly understood the vote and her interest 
working women was so genuine, that it was less thai 
decade afterward when she was elected to the presiden 
oof the National Woman's Trades Union League. T 
incident and the sequel registers, perhaps, the change 
Chicago towards the labor movement, the recogniti 
of the fact that it is a general social movement concei 
ing all members of society and not merely a ch 
s struggle. 

Some such public estimate of the labor movement w 
brought home to Chicago during several conspicuo 
strikes; at least labor legislation has twice been i 




LABOR LEGISLATION IN ILLINOIS 197 

ugurated because its need was thus made clear. After 
le Pullman strike 0 various elements in the community 
ere unexpectedly brought together that they might 
ffierly consider and rectify the weaknesses in the legal 
ructure which the strike had revealed. These citizens 5 
rranged for a large and representative convention to 
2 held in Chicago on Industrial Conciliation and 
rbitration. I served as secretary of the committee 
om the new Civic Federation having the matter in 
large, and our hopes ran high when, as a result of the 10 
citation, the Illinois legislature passed a law creating 
State Board of Conciliation and Arbitration. But 
fen a state board cannot accomplish more than public 
ntiment authorizes and sustains, and we might easily 
ive been discouraged in those early days could we 15 
ive foreseen some of the industrial disturbances which 
ive since disgraced Chicago. This law embodied the 
ist provisions of the then existing laws for the arbitra- 
an of industrial disputes. At the time the word 
bitration was still a word to conjure with, and many 20 
hicago citizens were convinced, not only of the danger 
id futility involved in the open warfare of opposing 
cial forces, but further believed that the search for 
stice and righteousness in industrial relations was 
lade infinitely more difficult thereby. 25' 

The Pullman strike afforded much illumination to 
1 any Chicago people. Before it, there had been nothing 
i my experience to reveal that distinct cleavage of 







198 twenty years at hull-house 

society, which a general strike at least momentari 
affords. Certainly, during all those dark days of tl 
Pullman strike, the growth of class bitterness was mo 
obvious. The fact that the Settlement maintainc 
s avenues of intercourse with both sides seemed to gn 
it opportunity for nothing but a realization of thebitte 
ness and division along class lines. I had known M 
Pullman and had seen his genuine pride and pleasui 
in the model town he had built with so much care; an 
ol had an opportunity to talk to many of the Pullma 
employees during the strike when I was sent from a sc 
called “Citizens’ Arbitration Committee” to their fin 
meetings held in a hall in the neighboring village c 
Kensington, and when I was invited to the mode? 
s supper tables laid in the model houses. The employee 
then expected a speedy settlement and no one doubte 
but that all the grievances connected with the “stra> 
bosses” would be quickly remedied and that the benevc 
lence which had built the model town would not fa 
othem. They were sure that the “straw bosses” ha 
misrepresented the state of affairs, for this very firs 
awakening to class consciousness bore many traces c 
the servility on one side and the arrogance on the othe 
which had so long prevailed in the model town. Hi 
s entire strike demonstrated how often the outcome o 
far-reaching industrial disturbances is dependent upoi 
the personal will of the employer or the temperament o 
a strike leader. Those familiar with strikes know onh 






LABOR LEGISLATION IN ILLINOIS 199 

x) well how much they are influenced by poignant 
omestic situations, by the troubled consciences of the 
linority directors, by the suffering women and children, 
y the keen excitement ol the struggle, by the religious 
Tuples sternly suppressed but occasionally asserting 5 
lemselves, now on one side and now on the other, and 
y that undefined psychology of the crowd which we 
nderstand so little. All of these factors also influence 
le public and do much to determine popular sympathy 
id judgment. In the early days of the Pullman strike, 10 
i I was coming down in the elevator of the Auditorium 
otel from one of the futile meetings of the Arbitration 
ommittee, I met an acquaintance, who angrily said 
that the strikers ought all to be shot.” As I had heard 
ithing so bloodthirsty as this either from the most en- 15 
ged capitalist or front the most desperate of the men, 
id was interested to find the cause of such a senseless 
itbreak, I finally discovered that the first ten thousand 
ill ars which my acquaintance had ever saved, requir- 
g, he said, years of effort from the time he was twelve 20 
iars old until he was thirty, had been lost as the 
suit of a strike; he clinched his argument that he 
lew what he was talking about, with the statement 
at “no one need expect him to have any sympathy 
ith strikers or with their affairs.” 25 

A very intimate and personal experience revealed, at 
ast to myself, my constant dread of the spreading ill 
11 . At the height of the sympathetic strike my oldest 







200 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


sister, who was convalescing from a long illness in 
hospital near Chicago, became suddenly very mu< 
worse. While I was able to reach her at once, evei 
possible obstacle of a delayed and blocked transport 
5 tion system interrupted the journey of her husband ar 
children who were hurrying to her bedside from a di 
tant state. As the end drew nearer and I was oblige 
to reply to my sister’s constant inquiries that her famil 
had not yet come, I was filled with a profound apprehei 
iosion lest her last hours should be touched with resem 
ment towards those responsible for the delay; lest he 
unutterable longing should at the very end be tinge 
with bitterness. She must have divined what was i 
my mind, for at last she said each time after the repeti 
15 tion of my sad news, “I don’t blame any one, I am no 
judging them.” My heart was comforted and heav 1 
at the same time; but how many more such moments o 
sorrow and death were being made difficult and loneb 
throughout the land, and how much would these ex 
2experiences add to the lasting bitterness, that touch o 
self-righteousness which makes the spirit of forgivenes: 
well-nigh impossible? 

When I returned to Chicago from the quiet country 
I saw the Federal troops encamped about the post 
25 office; almost every one on Halsted Street wearing a 
white ribbon, the emblem of the strikers’ side; the 
residents at Hull-House divided in opinion as to the 
righteousness of this or that measure; and no one able 


I 











LABOR LEGISLATION IN ILLINOIS 201 

secure any real information as to which side was 
Horning the cars. After the Pullman strike I made an 
tempt to analyze in a paper which I called “The 
odern King Lear,” the inevitable revolt of human 
ture against the plans Mr. Pullman had made for 
Ji 5 employees, the miscarriage of which appeared to 
§ m such black ingratitude. It seemed to me unendura- 
ii 2 not to make some effort to gather together the social 
ei plications of the failure of this benevolent employer 
d its relation to the demand for a more democratic 
1 ministration of industry. Doubtless the paper repre- 
fnted a certain “excess of participation,” to use a 
sntle phrase of Charles Lamb’s in preference to a more 
t lphatic one used by Mr. Pullman himself. The last 
«::ture of the Pullman strike which I distinctly recall 
ihs three years later when one of the strike leaders 
cme to see me. Although out of work for most of the 
tne since the strike, he had been undisturbed for six 
mths in the repair shops of a street car company, 
der an assumed name, but he had at that moment 
en discovered and dismissed. He was a superior type 
English workingman, but as he stood there, broken 
d discouraged, believing himself so black-listed that 
; skill could never be used again, filled with sorrow 
er the loss of his wife who had recently died after an 
i3 less with distressing mental symptoms, realizing 
mly the lack pf the respectable way of living he had 
yays until now been able to maintain, he seemed to 









202 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

me an epitome of the wretched human waste such 
strike implies. I fervently hoped that the new arbitr 
tion law would prohibit in Chicago forever more sue 
brutal and ineffective methods of settling industrial di i 
s putes. And yet even as early as 1896, we found ti 
greatest difficulty in applying the arbitration law to tl 
garment workers’ strike, although it was finally acconf 
plished after various mass meetings had urged it. TH 
cruelty and waste of the strike as an implement fc 
o securing the most reasonable demands, came to me a 
another time, during the long strike of the clothin: 
cutters. They had protested, not only against varioi 
wrongs of their own, but against the fact that th| 
tailors employed by the custom merchants were oblige 
s to furnish their own workshops and thus bore a burde 
of rent which belonged to the employer. One of thl 
leaders in this strike, whom I had known for sever; 
years as a sober, industrious, and unusually intelligen 
man, I saw gradually break down during the many try 
o ing weeks and at last suffer a complete moral collapse 
He was a man of sensitive organization under th 
necessity, as is every leader during a strike, to addres 
the same body of men day after day with an appea 
sufficiently emotional to respond to their sense 0 
s injury; to receive callers at any hour of the day or night 
to sympathize with all the distress of the strikers wh< 
see their familes daily suffering; he must do it all witl 
the sickening sense of the increasing privation in hi 






LABOR LEGISLATION IN ILLINOIS 203 

vn home, and in this case with the consciousness that 
ilure was approaching nearer each day. This man, 
rcustomed to the monotony of his workbench and 
iddenly thrown into a new situation, showed every 
bn of nervous fatigue before the final collapse came. 5 
e disappeared after the strike and I did not see him 
!.r ten years, but when he returned he immediately 
bgan talking about the old grievances which he had 
ipeated so often that he could talk of nothing else. It 
(as easy to recognize the same nervous symptoms which 10 
le broken-down lecturer exhibits who has depended 
non the exploitation ol his own experiences to keep 
Imself going. One of his stories was indeed pathetic, 
lis employer, during the busy season, had met him one 
:inday afternoon in Lincoln Park whither he had taken 15 
Is three youngest children, one of whom had been ill. 
le employer scolded him for thus wasting his time and 
:ughly asked why he had not taken home enough work 
keep himself busy through the day. The story was 
ite credible because the residents at Hull-House have 20 
d many opportunities to see the worker driven ruth- 
sly during the season and left in idleness for long 
feks afterward. We have slowly come to realize that 
:riodical idleness as well as the payment of wages 
sufficient for maintenance of the manual worker in 25 

1 industrial and domestic efficiency, stand economical- 
on the same footing with the “sweated” industries, 

2 overwork of women, and employment of children. 



204 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


I o 


i 5 


2 O 


2 5 


But of all the aspects of social misery nothing is s 
heart-breaking as unemployment, and it was inevitab 
that we should see much of it in a neighborhood whei 
low rents attracted the poorly , paid worker and man 
newly arrived immigrants who were first employed i 
gangs upon railroad extensions and similar undertaking 
The sturdy peasants, eager for work, were either tl 
victims of the padrone who fleeced them unmercifully 
both in securing a place to work and then in supply in 
them with food, or they became the mere spoit of ui 
scrupulous employment agencies. Hull-House mad 
an investigation both of the padrone and ol the agencit 
in our immediate vicinity, and the outcome confirmin 
what we already suspected, we eagerly threw ourselvt 
into a movement to procure free employment bureau 
under State control until a law authorizing such bureau 
and giving the officials intrusted with their managemer 
power to regulate private employment agencies, passe 
the Illinois Legislature in 1899. The history of thes 
bureaus demonstrates the tendency we all have, 
consider a legal enactment in itself an achievement 
to grow careless in regard to its administration 
actual results; for an investigation into the situati 
ten years later discovered that immigrants were s 
shamefully imposed upon. A group of Bulgarians wei 
found who had been sent to work in Arkansas whe 
their services were not needed; they walked back 
Chicago only to secure their next job in Oklahoma a 











LABOR LEGISLATION IN ILLINOIS 205 

pay another railroad fare as well as another com¬ 
ission to the agency. Not only was there no method 
r which the men not needed in Arkansas could know 
at there was work in Oklahoma unless they came 
ck to Chicago to find it out, but there was no cer- 
inty that they might not be obliged to walk back from 
dahoma because the Chicago agency had already 
it out, too many men. 

Ihis investigation of the employment bureau re- 
urces of Chicago was undertaken by the League for 
b Protection of Immigrants, with whom it is possible 
r Hull-House to cooperate whenever an investigation 
the immigrant colonies in our immediate neighbor- 
ad seems necessary, as was recently done in regard 
the Greek colonies of Chicago. The superintendent 
this League, Miss Grace Abbott, is a resident of Hull- 
»use and all of our later attempts to secure justice 
I opportunity for immigrants are much more effective 
ough the League, and when we speak before a con- 
ssional committee in Washington concerning the 
ids of Chicago immigrants, we represent the League 
well as our own neighbors. 

t is in connection with the first factory employment 
newly arrived immigrants and the innumerable 
iculties attached to their first adjustment, that some 
the most profound industrial disturbances in Chicago 
he come about. Under any attempt at classification 
se strikes belong more to the general social move- 





206 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


merit than to the industrial conflict, for the strike i; 
implement used most rashly by unorganized labor \ i 
after they are in difficulties, call upon the trades-un i 
for organization and direction. They are similai i 
5 those strikes which are inaugurated by the unionsl: 
behalf of unskilled labor. In neither case do the has ] 
organized unions usually hold after the excitement 
the moment has subsided, and the most valuable re 
of such strikes is the expanding consciousness of 1 
o solidarity of the workers. This was certainly the re: i 
of the Chicago stockyard strike in 1905, inaugurated 
behalf of the immigrant laborers and so conspicuoL 
carried on without violence that, although twenty-i 
thousand workers were idle during the entire sumn 1 
s there were fewer arrests in the stockyards district tl 1 
the average summer months afford. However, 
story of this strike should not be told from Hull-Hoi: 
but from the University of Chicago Settlement, wh 
Miss Mary McDowell performed such signal pul 1 
o service during that trying summer. It would be int 
esting to trace how much of the subsequent expos 1 
of conditions and attempts at governmental control- 
this huge industry had their genesis in this first atten 
of the unskilled workers to secure a higher standard j 
s living. Certainly the industrial conflict when epito 
ized in a strike, centers public attention on conditions ! 
nothing else can do. A strike is one of the most exciti 
episodes in modern life and as it assumes the charact 


LABOR LEGISLATION IN ILLINOIS 207 

<;tics of a game, the entire population of a city becomes 
ivided into two cheering sides. In such moments the 
hir-minded public, who ought to be depended upon as 
i referee, practically disappears. Any one who tries 
h keep the attitude of nonpartisanship, which is per¬ 
haps an impossible one, is quickly under suspicion by 
-oth sides. At least that was the fate of a group of 
itizens appointed by the mayor of Chicago to arbitrate 
luring the stormy teamsters’ strike which occurred in 
5905. We sat through a long Sunday afternoon in the 
Mayor’s office in the City Hall, talking first with the 
•ffior men and then with the group of capitalists. The 
ndertaking was the more futile in that we were all 
[ ractically the dupes of a new type of “industrial con- 
piracy” successfully inaugurated in Chicago by a close 
tompact between the coal teamsters’ union and the coal 
earn owners’ association who had formed a kind of 
monopoly hitherto new to a monopoly-ridden public. 

The stormy teamsters’ strike, ostensibly undertaken 
1 defense of the garment workers, but really arising 
rom causes so obscure and dishonorable that they have 
lever yet been made public, was the culmination of a 
ype of trades-unions which had developed in Chicago 
luring the preceding decade in which corruption had 
tourished almost as openly as it had previously done in 
he City Hall. This corruption sometimes took the 
orm of grafting after the manner of Samuel Parks in 
view York; sometimes that of political deals in the 





208 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


“delivery of the labor vote”; and sometimes that c 
combination between capital and labor hunting 
gether. At various times during these years the bet 
type of trades-unionists had made a firm stand agai 
5 this corruption and a determined effort to eradicat( 
from the labor movement, not unlike the general refo 
effort of many American cities against political c 
ruption. This reform movement in the Chicago Fede 
tion of Labor had its martyrs, and more than one rr 
onearly lost his life through the “slugging” methe 
employed by the powerful corruptionists. And ] 
even in the midst of these things were found touchi 
examples of fidelity to the earlier principles of broth 
hood totally untouched by the corruption. At one tii 
sthe scrub women in the downtown office buildings h 
a union of their own affiliated with the elevator men a 
the janitors. Although the union was used merely an 
weapon in the fight of the coal teamsters against the i 
of natural gas in downtown buildings, it did not preve 
othe women from getting their first glimpse into t 
fellowship and the sense of protection which is the gre 
gift of trades-unionism to the unskilled, unbefriend 
worker. I remember in a meeting held at Hull-Hoi 
one Sunday afternoon, that the president of a “loca 
s of scrub women stood up to relate her experience. S 
told first of the long years in which the fear of losi 
her job and the fluctuating pay were harder to be 
than the hard work itself, when she had regarded all t 


LABOR LEGISLATION IN ILLINOIS 209 

her women who scrubbed in the same building merely 
rivals and was most afraid of the most miserable, 
:cause they offered to work for less and less as they 
are pressed harder and harder by debt. Then she told 
the change that had come when the elevator men and 
ren the lordly janitors had talked to her about an 
rganization and had said that they must all stand to- 

I ther. The told how gradually she came to feel sure of 
:r job and of her regular pay, and she was even start- 
g to buy a house now that she could “calculate” how 
iuch she “could have for sure.” Neither she nor any 
i the other members knew that the same combination 
fnch had organized the scrub women into a union, 

I ter destroyed it during a strike inaugurated for their 
m purposes. 

That a Settlement is drawn into the labor issues of 
> city can seem remote to its purpose only to those 
no fail to realize that so far as the present industrial 
stem thwarts our ethical demands, not only for social 
^hteousness but for social order, a Settlement is com- 
itted to an effort to understand and, as far as possible, 
alleviate it. That in this effort it should be drawn 
to fellowship with the local efforts of trades-unions is 
ost obvious. This identity of aim apparently commits 
e Settlement in the public mind to all the faiths and 
nrks of actual trades-unions. Fellowship has so long 
iplied similarity of creed that the fact that the Settle- 
ent often differs widely from the policy pursued by 



2io TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


trades-unionists and clearly expresses that differenl 
does not in the least change public opinion in regard 
its identification. This is especially true in periods 
industrial disturbance, although it is exactly at sn 
5 moments that the trades-unionists themselves ; 
suspicious of all but their “own kind.” It is during t 
much longer periods between strikes that the Settlemen 
fellowship with trades-unions is most satisfactory in t 
agitation for labor legislation and similar undertakin 
o The first officers of the Chicago Woman’s Trades Uni 
League were residents of Settlements, although th 
can claim little share in the later record the Leag 
made in securing the passage of the Illinois Ten-Hc 
Law for Women and in its many other fine undertakinj 
s Nevertheless the reaction of strikes upon Chica 
Settlements affords an interesting study in soc 
psychology. For whether Hull-House is in any w 
identified with the strike or not, makes no differem 
When 4 ‘Labor” is in disgrace we are always regarded I 
o belonging to it and share the opprobrium. In the pub 
excitement following the Pullman strike Hull-House lc 
many friends; later the teamsters’ strike caused anoth? 
such defection, although my office in both cases h 
been solely that of a duly appointed arbitrator, 
s There is, however, a certain comfort in the assum 1 
tion I have often encountered that wherever on< 
judgment might place the justice of a given situatioj 
it is understood that one’s sympathy is not alienated fi 




211 


LABOR LEGISLATION IN ILLINOIS 

ongdoing, and that through this sympathy one is 
11 subject to vicarious suffering. 1 recall an incident 
ring a turbulent Chicago strike which brought me 
ich comfort. On the morning of the day of a 
icheon to which I had accepted an invitation, the 
itress, whom I did not know, said to my prospective 
stess that she was sure I could not come. Upon 
ng asked for her reason she replied that she had seen 
the morning paper that the strikers had killed a 
:ab” and she was sure that I would feel quite too 
dly about such a thing, to be able to keep a social 
^agement. In spite of the confused issues, she 
dently realized my despair over the violence in a 
ike quite as definitely as if she had been told about 
i Perhaps that sort of suffering and the attempt to 
lerpret opposing forces to each other will long remain 
i function of the Settlement, unsatisfactory and 
ificult as the role often becomes. 

There has gradually developed between the various 
jjitlements of Chicago a warm fellowship founded upon 
like-mindedness resulting from similar experiences, 
j,ite as identity of interest and endeavor develop an 
Turing relation between the residents of the same 
Ltlement. This sense of comradeship is never stronger 
,m during the hardships and perplexities of a strike 
unskilled workers revolting against the conditions 
ich drag them even below the level of their European 
j:. At such times the residents in various Settlements 




2i2 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


are driven to a standard of life argument running so 
what in this wise — that as the very existence of 
State depends upon the character of its citizens, tht 
fore if certain industrial conditions are forcing 
5 workers below the standard of decency, it becor 
possible to deduce the right of State regulation. E 1 
as late as the stockyard strike this line of argument s 
denounced as “socialism” although it has since b 
confirmed as wise statesmanship by a decision of 
o Supreme Court of the United States which was 
parently secured through the masterly argument of 
Brandeis brief 0 in the Oregon ten-hour case. 

In such wise the residents of an industrial neighb 
hood gradually comprehend the close connection 
5 their own difficulties with national and even int 
national movements. The residents in the Chic; 
Settlements became pioneer members in the Americ 
branch of the International League for Labor Leg 
lation, because their neighborhood experiences h 
omade them only too conscious of the dire need for p 
tective legislation. In such a league, with its arde 
members in every industrial nation of Europe, with 
encouraging reports of the abolition of all night wc 
for women in six European nations, with its care 
5 observations on the results of employer’s liabil 
legislation and protection of machinery, one becoir 
identified with a movement of world-wide significan 
and manifold manifestation. 










CHAPTER XI 

Immigrants and Their Children 

From our very first months at Hull-House we found 
much easier to deal with the first generation of 
rowded city life than with the second or third, because 
: is more natural and cast in a simpler mold. The 
talian and Bohemian peasants who live in Chicago, 5 
till put on their bright holiday clothes on a Sunday 
nd go to visit their cousins. They tramp along with at 
iast a suggestion of having once walked over plowed 
elds and breathed country air. The second generation 
f city poor too often have no holiday clothes and con- 10 
ider their relations a “bad lot.” I have heard a 
runken man in a maudlin stage, babble of his good 
ountry mother and imagine he was driving the cows 
ome, and I knew that his little son who laughed loud 
t him would be drunk earlier in life and would have 1 5 
o such pastoral interlude to his ravings. Hospitality 
till survives among foreigners, although it is buried 
nder false pride among the poorest Americans. One 
hing seemed clear in regard to entertaining immigrants: 
o preserve and keep whatever of value their past life 20 
ontained and to bring them in contact with a better 
ype of Americans. For several years, every Saturday 




213 





214 twenty years at hull-house 


evening the entire families of our Italian neighbors wefe 
our guests. 1 hese evenings were very popular duri)| 
our first winters at Hull-House. Many educatJ 
Italians helped us, and the house became known asl 
s place where Italians were welcome and where nation 


holidays were observed. 1 hey come to us with the, 
petty lawsuits, sad relics of the vendetta , with the 
incorrigible boys, with their hospital cases, with the 
aspirations for American clothes, and with their need 
i o for an interpreter. 

An editor of an Italian paper made a genuine coi 
nection between us and the Italian colony, not onl 
with the Neapolitans and the Sicilians of the lmmediai 
neighboihood, but with the educated connazidna 
15 throughout the city, until he went south to start a 
agncultui al colony in Alabama, in the establishment 
which Hull-House heartily cooperated. 

Possibly the South Italians more than any other in 
migrants represent the pathetic stupidity of agriculture 
20 people crowded into city tenements, and we were muc 


gratified when thirty peasant families were induced 
move upon the land which they knew so well how 
cultivate. The starting of this colony, however, was 
very expensive affair in spite of the fact that the color 
2sists purchased the land at two dollars an acre; the 
needed much more than raw land, and although it w^a 
possible to collect the small sums necessary to sustai 
them during the hard time of the first two years, w 


c 









IMMIGRANTS, THEIR CHILDREN 215 

iere fully convinced that undertakings of this sort 
Duld be conducted properly only by colonization 
(hcieties such as England has established, or, better 
: ill, by enlarging the functions of the Federal Depart¬ 
ment of Immigration. 5 

t An evening similar in purpose to the one devoted to 
eue Italians was organized for the Germans, in our 
eirst year. Owing to the superior education of our 
teutonic guests and the clever leading of a cultivated 
erman woman, these evenings reflected something of 10 
mat cozy social intercourse which is found in its per- 

1 ction in the fatherland. Our guests sang a great deal 
i! the tender minor of the German folksong or in the 

rnsing spirit of the Rhine, and they slowly but per- 

2 stently pursued a course in German history and 15 
terature, recovering something of that poetry and 
>mance which they had long since resigned with other 
)od things. We found strong family affection between 
lem and their English-speaking children, but their 
leasures were not in common, and they seldom went 20 
it together. Perhaps the greatest value of the Settle¬ 
ment to them was in placing large and pleasant rooms 
ith musical facilities at their disposal, and in reviving 
leir almost forgotten enthusiasms. I have seen sons 
id daughters stand in complete surprise as their 25 
(Other’s knitting needles softly beat time to the song 

le was singing, or her worn face turned rosy under the 
and-clapping as she made an old-fashioned courtesy 





216 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

at the end of a German poem. It was easy to fane ; 
growing touch of respect in her children’s manner ( 
her, and a rising enthusiasm for German literature 1 1 
reminiscence on the part of all the family, an effort j 
5 bring together the old life and the new, a respect for i ( 
older cultivation, and not quite so much assurance tl | 
the new was the best. j 

This tendency upon the part of the older immigrai i 
to lose the amenities of European life without shari j 
i o those of America, has often been deplored by kei 
observers from the home countries. When Profes j 
Masurek of Prague 0 gave a course of lectures in t 
University of Chicago, he was much distressed over t 
materialism into which the Bohemians of Chicago h 

1 s fallen. The early immigrants had been so stirred by t 

opportunity to own real estate, an appeal perhaps 
the Slavic land hunger, and their energies had becon 
so completely absorbed in money-making that 
other interests had apparently dropped away. And y 
20 I recall a very touching incident in connection with 
lecture Professor Masurek gave at Hull-House, 
which he had appealed to his countrymen to arou 
themselves from this tendency to fall below their hon 
civilization and to forget the great enthusiasm whic 

2 5 had united them into the Pan-Slavic Movement. 

Bohemian widow who supported herself and her tw 
children by scrubbing, hastily sent her youngest chil 
to purchase, with the twenty-five cents which was t 

Ml 













IMMIGRANTS, THEIR CHILDREN 217 

ve supplied them with food the next day, a bunch of 
1 roses which she presented to the lecturer in appre- 
Ltion of his testimony to the reality of the things of 
e spirit. 

An overmastering desire to reveal the humbler im- 
grant parents to their own children lay at the base of 
lat has come to he called the Hull-House Labor 
useum. This was first suggested to my mind one 
rly spring day when I saw an old Italian woman, her 
staff against her homesick face, patiently spinning a 
read by the simple stick spindle so reminiscent of all 
iithern Europe. I was walking down Polk Street, 
rturbed in spirit, because it seemed so difficult to 
me into genuine relations with the Italian women 
id because they themselves so often lost their hold 
[,on their Americanized children. It seemed to me 
tat Hull-House ought to be able to devise some edu- 
ctional enterprise which should build a bridge between 
hropean and American experiences in such wise as to 
£/e them both more meaning and a sense of relation, 
meditated that perhaps the power to see life as a 
iole is more needed in the immigrant quarter of a 
:ge city than anywhere else, and that the lack of this 


I o 


I 5 


2 o 


wer is the most fruitful source of misunderstanding 
tween European immigrants and their children, as 
is between them and their American neighbors; and 
iy should that chasm between fathers and sons, 
wning at the feet of each generation, be made so un- 


2 5 











218 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


i 


i 




necessarily cruel and impassable to these bewildeij 
immigrants? Suddenly I looked up and saw the < 
woman with her distaff, sitting in the sun on the stt 
of a tenement house. She might have served as a mo< 
s for one of Michael Angelo’s Fates, but her face brigl 
ened as I passed and, holding up her spindle for me 
see, she called out that when she had spun a little me 
yarn, she would knit a pair of stockings for her gc 
daughter. The occupation of the old woman gave r 
iothe clew that was needed. Could we not interest t 
young people working in the neighboring factories 
these older forms of industry, so that, through the 
own parents and grandparents, they would find a drams 
ic representation of the inherited resources of their dai 

1 soccupation? If these young people could actually s 

that the complicated machinery of the factory h: 
been evolved from simple tools, they might at lea 
make a beginning toward that education which D 
Dewey 0 defines as ‘‘a continuing reconstruction 
20experience.” They might also lay a foundation fi 
reverence of the past which Goethe declares to be tl 
basis of all sound progress. 

My exciting walk on Polk Street was followed b 
many talks with Dr. Dewey and with one of the teacl 

2 5 ers in his school who was a resident at Hull-Hous 

Within a month a room was fitted up to which w 
might invite those of oui neighbors who w^ere possesse 
of old crafts and who were eager to use them. 












IMMIGRANTS, THEIR CHILDREN 219 

We found in the immediate neighborhood, at least 
( ur varieties of these most primitive methods of 
, inning and three distinct variations of the same spin- 
in connection with wheels. It was possible to put 
,!,ese seven into historic sequence and order and to 
>jnnect the whole with the present method of factory 
t inning. The same thing was done for weaving, and 
,[1 every Saturday evening a little exhibit was made 
these various forms of labor in the textile industry, 
ithin one room a Syrian woman, a Greek, an Italian, 
Russian, and an Irishwoman enabled even the most 
sual observer to see that there is no break in orderly 
olution if we look at history from the industrial 
andpoint; that industry develops similarly and peace- 
lly year by year among the workers of each nation, 
:edless of differences in language, religion, and 
ditical experiences. 

) And then we grew ambitious and arranged lectures 
)on industrial history. I remember that after an 
teresting lecture upon the industrial revolution in 
ngland and a portrayal of the appalling conditions 
roughout the weaving districts of the north, which 
i;suited from the hasty gathering of the weavers into 
, e new towns, a Russian tailor in the audience was 
loved to make a speech. He suggested that whereas 
me had done much to alleviate the first difficulties in 
ie transition of weaving from hand work to steam 
)wer, that in the application of steam to sewing we 







i 5 


2 5 


220 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

are still in the first stages, illustrated by the isolate 
woman who tries to support herself by hand needl 
work at home until driven out by starvation, as mar 
of the hand weavers had been. 

; 1 he historical analogy seemed to bring a certain con 

fort to the tailor as did a chart upon the wall, showir 
the infinitesimal amount of time that steam had bee 
applied to manufacturing processes compared to tf 
centuries of hand labor. Human progress is slow an 
perhaps never more cruel than in the advance of ir 
dustry, but is not the worker comforted by knowin 
that other historical periods have existed similar to th 
one in which he finds himself, and that the readjustmer 
may be shortened and alleviated by judicious actior 
and is he not entitled to the solace which an artist 
portrayal of the situation might give him? I remembc 
the evening of the tailor’s speech that I felt reproache 
because no poet or artist has endeared the sweater: 
victim to us as George Eliot has made us love the b 
lated weaver, Silas Marner. The textile museum 
connected directly with the basket weaving, sewin^ 
millinery, embroidery, and dressmaking constantl 
being taught at Hull-House, and so far as possible wit 
the other educational departments; we have also bee 
able to make a collection of products, of early implt 
ments, and of photographs which are full of suggestior 
Yet far beyond its direct educational value, we prize i 
because it so often puts the immigrants into the positio 














IMMIGRANTS, THEIR CHILDREN 221 

teachers, and we imagine that it affords them a 
asant change from the tutelage in which all Ameri- 
s, including their own children, are so apt to hold 
m. I recall a number of Russian women working in 
sewing-room near Hull-House, who heard one 5 
fistmas week that the House was going to give a 
ty to which they might come. They arrived one 
^rnoon when, unfortunately, there was no party on 
id and, although the residents did their best to 
rertain them with impromptu music and refresh- 10 
nts, it was quite evident that they were greatly 
appointed. Finally it was suggested that they be 
,wn the Labor Museum — where gradually the 
rty sodden, tired women were transformed. Ihey 
3W how to use the spindles and were delighted to find 15 
> Russian spinning frame. Many of them had never 
tn the spinning wheel, which has not penetrated to 
(tain parts of Russia, and they regarded it as a new 
1 wonderful invention. I hey turned up their dresses 
show their homespun petticoats; they tried the looms; 20 
;y explained the difficulty of the old patterns; in 
>rt, from having been stupidly entertained, they 
mselves did the entertaining. Because of a direct 
Deal to former experiences, the immigrant visitors 
[ re able for the moment to instruct their American 25 
(itesses in an old and honored craft, as was indeed 
coming to their age and experience. 

In some such ways as these have the Labor Museum 






222 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

and the shops pointed out the possibilities which Jij 
House has scarcely begun to develop, of demonstni 
that culture is an understanding of the long-establi 
occupations and thoughts of men, of the arts with w 
s they have solaced their toil. A yearning to recove 
the household arts something of their early sanctity ; 
meaning, arose strongly within me one evening wh t 
was attending a Passover Feast 0 to which I had 1 
invited by a Jewish family in the neighborhood, w] 
iothe traditional and religious significance of worn 
daily activity was still retained. The kosher food 
Jewish mother spread before her family had been 
pared according to traditional knowledge and v 
constant care in the use of utensils; upon her had fa 
15 the responsibility to make all ready according 
Mosaic instructions that the great crisis in a religi 
history might be fittingly set forth by her husband ; 
son. Aside from the grave religious significance in 
ceremony, my mind was filled with shifting pictures 
20 woman’s labor with which travel makes one famili 
the Indian women grinding grain outside of their h 
as they sing praises to the sun and rain; a file of whi 
clad Moorish women whom I had once seen waiti 
their turn at a well in Tangiers; south Italian worn 
2 s kneeling in a row along the stream and beating thl 
wet clothes against the smooth white stones; the mill 
mg, the gardening, the marketing in thousands of hai 






IMMIGRANTS, THEIR CHILDREN 223 

!, which are such direct expressions of the solicitude 
" [ affection at the basis of all family life, 
here has been some testimony that the Labor 
seum has revealed the charm of woman’s primitive 
ivities. I recall a certain Italian girl who came every 5 
urday evening to a cooking class in the same building 
Thich her mother spun in the Labor Museum exhibit; 

H yet Angelina always left her mother at the front 
kr while she herself went around to a side door be- 
se she did not wish to be too closely identified in the 10 
s of the rest of the cooking class with an Italian 
nan who wore a kerchief over her head, uncouth 
>ts, and short petticoats. One evening, however, 
relina saw her mother surrounded by a group of 
tors from the School of Education, who much ad- 15 
l ed the spinning, and she concluded from their con- 
sation that her mother was “the best stick-spindle 
iner in America.” When she inquired from me as 
the truth of this deduction, I took occasion to 
cribe the Italian village in which her mother had 20 
id, something of her free life, and how, because of 
j opportunity she and the other women of the village 
1 to drop their spindles over the edge of a precipice, 

I y had developed a skill in spinning beyond that of 
j: neighboring towns. I dilated somewhat on the 25 
iLdom and beauty of that life — how hard it must be 
cexchange it all for a two-room tenement, and to give 










224 twenty years at hull-house 

up a beautiful homespun kerchief for an ugly depi 
ment store hat. I intimated it was most unfair to ji j 
her by these things alone, and that while she n 
depend on her daughter to learn the new ways, she j 
shad a right to expect her daughter to know sometl i 
of the old ways. 

That which 1 could not convey to the child but ui 
which my own mind persistently dwelt, was that 
mother s whole life had been spent in a secluded s 
ioundei the rule of traditional and narrowly locali 
observances, until her very religion clung to lc 
sanctities to the shrine before which she had alw 
prayed, to the pavement and walls of the low vaul 
church and then suddenly she was torn from it 
i s and literally put out to sea, straight away from 
solid habits of her religious and domestic life, and : 
now walked timidly but with poignant sensibility up 
a new and strange shore. 

It was easy to see that the thought of her mod 
20 with any other background than that of the teneme 
was new to Angelina and at least two things resultt 
she allowed her mother to pull out of the big box unc 
the bed the beautiful homespun garments which h 
been previously hidden away as uncouth; and s 
2 5 openly came into the Labor Museum by the same do! 
as did her mother, proud at least of the mastery of t 
craft which had been so much admired. 

A club of necktie workers formerly meeting at Hu 



IMMIGRANTS, THEIR CHILDREN 225 

■use persistently resented any attempt on the part 
heir director to improve their minds. The president 
:e said that she “wouldn’t be caught dead at a 
!:ure,” that she came to the club “ to get some fun out 
t,” and indeed it was most natural that she should 
ve recreation after a hard day’s work. One evening 
hw the entire club listening to quite a stiff lecture in 
Labor Museum and to my rather wicked remark 
he president that I was surprised to see her enjoying 
: cture, she replied that she did not call this a lecture, 
t called this “getting next to the stuff you work with 
the time.” It was perhaps the sincerest tribute we 
re ever received as to the success of the undertaking, 
he Labor Museum continually demanded more 
ce as it was enriched by a fine textile exhibit lent by 
Field Museum, 0 and later by carefully selected 
cimens of basketry from the Philippines. 1 he shops 
r e finally included a group of three or four women, 
jh, Italian, Danish, who have become a permanent 
'king force in the textile department which has 
eloped into a self-supporting industry through the 
i of its homespun products. 

hese women and a few men, who come to the 
seum to utilize their European skill in pottery, metal, 
rl wood, demonstrate that immigrant colonies might 
i d to our American life something very valuable, if 
ir resources were intelligently studied and developed. 
:call an Italian, who had decorated the doorposts of 






226 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


his tenement with a beautiful pattern he had previou 
used in carving the reredos 0 of a Neapolitan chun 
who was “fired” by his landlord on the ground 
destroying property. * His feelings were hurt, not 

5 much that he had been put out of his house, as that 
work had been so disregarded; and he said that wl 
people traveled in Italy they liked to look at wc 
carvings but that in America “they only made mor 
out of you. ” 

o Sometimes the suppression of the instinct of wo 
manship is followed by more disastrous results. 
Bohemian, whose little girl attended classes at Hi 
House, in one of his periodic drunken spells had litera 


5 


o 


5 


almost choked her to death, and later had commiti 
suicide when in delirium tremens. His poor wife, w 
stayed a week at Hull-House after the disaster unti 
new tenement could be arranged for her, one day show 
me a gold ring which her husband had made for th 
betrothal. It exhibited the most exquisite workrm 
ship, and she said that although in the old country 
had been a goldsmith, in America he had for twer 
years shoveled coal in a furnace room of a large mar 
facturing plant; that whenever she saw one of 
restless fits, which preceded his drunken peno 
coming on,” if she could provide him with a bit 
metal and persuade him to stay at home and work 
it, he was all right and the time passed without disast 
but that nothing else would do it.” 1 his story thr 
a flood of light upon the dead man’s struggle and on t 













IMMIGRANTS, THEIR CHILDREN 227 

pid maladjustment which had broken him down. 

11 ly had we never been told ? Why had our interest in 
3 : remarkable musical ability of his child blinded us 
the hidden artistic ability of the father? We had 
gotten that a long-established occupation may form 5 
very foundations of the moral life, that the art with 
ich a man has solaced his toil may be the salvation 
lis uncertain temperament. 

There are many examples of touching fidelity to 
nigrant parents on the part of their grown children: 10 
oung man, who day after day, attends ceremonies 
1 ich no longer express his religious convictions and 
3 makes his vain effort to interest his Russian Jewish 
: ler in social problems; a daughter who might earn 
ch more money as a stenographer could she work 15 
n Monday morning till Saturday night, but who 
etly and docilely makes neckties for low wages be- 
se she can thus abstain from work Saturdays to 
ase her father; these young people, like poor Maggie 
!liver,° through many painful experiences have 20 
ched the conclusion that pity, memory, and faithful- 
s are natural ties with paramount claims, 
his faithfulness, however, is sometimes ruthlessly 
>osed upon by immigrant parents who, eager for 

S ney and accustomed to the patriarchal authority of 25 
sant households, hold their children in a stern 
idage which requires a surrender of all their wages 
1 concedes no time or money for pleasures, 
here are many convincing illustrations that this 




238 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

parental harshness often results in juvenile delinquei: 
A Polish boy of seventeen came to Hull-House one 
to ask a contribution of fifty cents “towards a fie 
piece for the funeral of an old Hull-House club be 
5 A few questions made it clear that the object 
fictitious, whereupon the boy broke down and 
defiantly stated that he wanted to buy two twenty* 
cent tickets, one for his girl and one for himself, 
dance of the Benevolent Social Twos; that he hadr 

i o penny of his own although he had worked in a b 
foundry for three years and had been advanced tv 
because he always had to give his pay envelope 
opened to his father; “just look at the clothes he b 
me” was his concluding remark. 

15 Perhaps the girls are held even more rigidly. I 
recent investigation of two hundred working girl 
was found that only five per cent had the use of t! 
own money and that sixty-two per cent turned in 
they earned, literally every penny, to their mothers. 

20 was through this little investigation that we first ki 
Marcella, a pretty young German girl who helped 
widowed mother year after year to care for a la 
family of younger children. She was content for 
most part although her mother’s old-country notion: 

2 S dress gave her but an infinitesimal amount of her cl 
wages to spend on her clothes, and she was qi 
sophisticated as to proper dressing because she s \ 
silk in a neighborhood department store. Her mot 








tx 


IMMIGRANTS, THEIR CHILDREN 229 

ie roved of the young man who was showing her 
eiious attentions and agreed that Marcella should 
crspt his invitation to a ball, but would allow her not 
jnny towards a new gown to replace one impossibly 
n and shabby. Marcella spent a sleepless night and 5 
>t bitterly, although she well knew that the doctor’s 
for the children’s scarlet fever was not yet paid, 
next day as she was cutting off three yards of 
lining pink silk, the thought came to her that it would 
ce her a fine new waist to wear to the ball. She wist- 1 o 
ry saw it wrapped in paper and carelessly stuffed 
) the muff of the purchaser, when suddenly the 
b|cel fell upon the floor. No one was looking and 
zk as a flash the girl picked it up and pushed it into 
blouse. The theft was discovered by the relentless 15 
rl artment store detective who, for “the sake of the 
tlmple, ” insisted upon taking the case into court, 
n 3 poor mother wept bitter tears over this downfall 
ler “frommes Madchen’’ and no one had the heart 
;ell her of her own blindness. 20 

know a Polish boy whose earnings were all given to 
father who gruffly refused all requests for pocket 
rfney. One Christmas his little sisters, having been 
1 by their mother that they were too poor to have 
r Christmas presents, appealed to the big brother as 25 
pne who was earning money of his own. Flattered by 
<1 implication, but at the same time quite impecunious, 
lt 0 night before Christmas he nonchalantly walked 







230 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

through a neighboring department store and stj 
manicure set for one little sister and a string of bea( 
the other. He was caught at the door by the 1 i 
detective as one of those children whom each m 
s department store arrests in the weeks before Chris n 
at the daily rate of eight to twenty. The younge 
these offenders are seldom taken into court but a 
either sent home with a warning or turned over tcj 
officers of the Juvenile Protective Association. ij 

1 ° of these premature law breakers are in searcl j 

Americanized clothing and others are only looking 
playthings. They are all distracted by the profiij 
and variety of the display, and their moral sense is J 
fused by the general air of open-handedness. 

15 These disastrous efforts are not unlike those of rr 
younger children who are constantly arrested for p 
thieving because they are too eager to take home 
or fuel which will relieve the distress and need the 
constantly hear discussed. The coal on the wag 

20 the vegetables displayed in front of the grocery sh 
the very wooden blocks in the loosened street pa’ 
are a challenge to their powers to help out at home 
Bohemian boy who was out on parole from the 
detention home of the Juvenile Court itself, broi 

2 5 back five stolen chickens to the matron for Sun 

dinner, saying that he knew the Committee were ‘T 
ing a hard time to fill up so many kids and perh 
these fowl would help out.” The honest immigi 



231 


IMMIGRANTS, THEIR CHILDREN 

mts, totally Ignorant of American laws and munici- . 
regulations, often send a child to pick up coal on 
railroad tracks or to stand at three o'clock in the 
ning before the side door of a restaurant which 
s away broken food, or to collect grain for the 5 
kens at the base of elevators and standing cars, 
latter custom accounts for the large number of boys 
sted for breaking the seals on grain freight cars. It 
isy for a child thus trained to accept the proposition 
junk dealer to bring him bars of iron stored in 10 
rht yards. Four boys quite recently had thus 
ied away and sold to one man, two tons of iron. 

’our fifths of the children brought into the Juvenile 
rt in Chicago are the children of foreigners. I he 
[mans are the greatest offenders, Polish next. Do 15 
r children suffer from the excess of virtue in those 
bnts so eager to own a house and lot? One often 
a grasping parent in the court, utterly broken down 
n the Americanized youth who has been brought to 
f clings as piteously to his peasant father as if he 20 
e still a frightened little boy in the steerage. 

Iany of these children have come to grief through 
r premature fling into city life, having thrown off 
mtal control as they have impatiently discarded 
ign ways. Boys of ten and twelve will refuse to 25 
p at home, preferring the freedom of an old brewery 
It or an empty warehouse to the obedience required 
heir parents, and for days these boys will live on the 






232 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

milk and bread which they steal from the back por<( 
after the early morning delivery. Such children c 
plain that there is “no fun” at home. One little cl 
who was given a vacant lot to cultivate by the ( 

5 Garden Association, insisted upon raising only pope 
and tried to present the entire crop to Hull-House 
be used for the parties,” with the stipulation that 
would have “to be invited every single time.” T 
there are little groups of dissipated young men \ 
i o pride themselves upon their ability to live wi th 
working, and who despise all the honest and sober w 
of their immigrant parents. They are at once a men 
and a center of demoralization. Certainly the be 1 
dered parents, unable to speak English and ignoran 

1 s the city, whose children have disappeared for days 

weeks, have often come to Hull-House, evincing t 
agony which fairly separates the marrow from the be 
as if they had discovered a new type of suffering, dev 
of the healing in familiar sorrows. It is as if they 
20 not know how to search for the children without 
assistance of the children themselves. Perhaps the m f 
pathetic aspect of such cases is their revelation of | 
premature dependence of the older and wiser upon 1: 
young and foolish, which is in itself often responsi t 

2 s for the situation because it has given the children 

undue sense of their own importance and a false secur 
that they can take care of themselves. 

On the other hand, an Italian girl who has had lessc 








IMMIGRANTS, THEIR CHILDREN 233 

)oking at the public school, will help her mother to 
iect the entire family with. American food and 
;ehold habits. That the mother has never baked 
d in Italy — only mixed it in her own house and 
taken it out to the village oven — makes all the 5 
j valuable her daughter’s understanding of the 
plicated cooking stove. The same thing is true of 
prl who learns to sew in the public school, and more 
anything else, perhaps, of the girl who receives 
irst simple instruction in the care of little children 1 
lat skillful care which every tenement-house baby 
ires if he is to be pulled through his second summer. 

result of this teaching I recall a young girl who 
fully explained to her Italian mother that the 
i>n the babies in Italy were so healthy and the babies 1 
jhicago were so sickly, was not, as her mother had 
oy insisted, because her babies in Italy had goat’s 
l and her babies in America had cow’s milk, but 
; ise the milk in Italy was clean and the milk in 
iago was dirty. She said that when you milked 2 
j own goat before the door, you knew that the milk 
s:lean, but when you bought milk from the grocery 
1 after it had been carried for many miles in the 
itry, you couldn’t tell whether or not it was fit for 
: aby to drink until the men from the City Hall, who 2 
ivatched it all the way, said that it was all right. 

111s through civic instruction in the public schools, 
ultalian woman slowly became urbanized in the 



234 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


sense in which the word was used by her own 
ancestors, and thus the habits of her entire family 
modified. The public schools in the immigrant co 
deserve all the praise as Americanizing agencies ’ 


scan be bestowed upon them, and there is little < 
that the fast-changing curriculum in the direction < 
vacation-school experiments will react still more d 
ly upon such households. 

It is difficult to write of the relation of the olde 
omost foreign-looking immigrants to the childn 
other people, — the Italians whose fruit carts are 


simply because they are “dagoes,” or the Ri 
peddlers who are stoned and sometimes badly in 
because it has become a code of honor in a gang of 
5 to thus express their derision. The members of a 
tective Association of Jewish Peddlers organiz< 
Hull-House, related daily experiences in which ol 
had been treated with such irreverence, cher 
dignity with such disrespect, that a listener cau 
o passion of Lear in the old texts, as a platitude < 
ciated by a man who discovers in it his own exper 
thrills us as no unfamiliar phrases can possibly do. 
Greeks are filled with amazed rage when their 
name is flung at them as an opprobrious epithet. D 
5 less these difficulties would be much minimize 
America, if we faced our own race problem with coi 
and intelligence, and these very Mediterranean 
migrants might give us valuable help. Certainly 


1 












IMMIGRANTS, THEIR CHILDREN 235 

^less conscious than the Anglo-Saxon of color dis¬ 
cions, perhaps because of their traditional familiarity 
1 Carthage and Egypt. They listened with respect 
I enthusiasm to a scholarly address delivered by 
lessor Du Bois° at Hull-House on a Lincoln’s birth- 5 
1 with apparently no consciousness of that race 
trence which color seems to accentuate so absurdly, 
upon my return from various conferences held in 
interest of “the advancement of colored people,” 
ve had many illuminating conversations with my 10 
aopolitan neighbors. 

ne celebration of national events has always been 
irce of new understanding and companionship with 
nembers of the contiguous foreign colonies, not only 
een them and their American neighbors but be- 15 
n them and their own children. One of our earliest 
an events was a rousing commemoration of Gari- 
s birthday, 0 and his imposing bust, presented to 
i-House that evening, was long the chief ornament 
r front hall. It called forth great enthusiasm from 20 
onnazionali whom Ruskin calls, not the “common 
le” of Italy, but the “ companion people” because 
eir power for swift sympathy, 
huge Hellenic meeting held at Hull-House, in 
1 the achievements of the classic period were set 25 
both in Greek and English by scholars of well- 
n repute, brought us into a new sense of fellowship 
all our Greek neighbors. As the mayor of Chicago 



236 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

was seated upon the right hand of the dignified s< i 
priest of the Greek Church and they were gna 
alternately in the national hymns of America 1 
Greece, one felt a curious sense of the possibilit i 
s transplanting to new and crude Chicago, some o;:l 
traditions of Athens itself, so deeply cherished ir:| 
hearts of this group of citizens. j 

The Greeks indeed gravely consider their tradi j 
as their most precious possession and more than on:j 
o meetings of protest held by the Greek colony ag j 
the aggressions of the Bulgarians in Macedonia, I i 
heard it urged that the Bulgarians are trying to el 
lish a protectorate, not only for their immediate j 
vantage, but that they may claim a glorious histor fi 
s their “ barbarous country. ” It is said that on the | 
of this protectorate, they are already teaching in j 
schools that Alexander the Great was a Bulgarian j 
that it will be but a short time before they claim 
totle himself, an indignity the Greeks will never si 
o To me personally the celebration of the hundi 
anniversary of Mazzini’s birth was a matter of \ 
interest. Throughout the world that day Italians 
believed in a United Italy came together. The; 
called the hopes of this man who, with all his dev< 
s to his country, was still more devoted to humanity 
who dedicated to the workingmen of Italy an a{ 
so philosophical, so filled with a yearning for right< 
ness, that it transcended all national boundaries 


/ 



IMMIGRANTS, THEIR CHILDREN 237 

j:ame a bugle call for “The Duties of Man.” A copy 
•this document was given to every school child in the 
blic schools of Italy on this one hundredth anniver- 
y, and as the Chicago branch of the Society of 
t ung Italy marched into our largest hall and presented 
Hull-House an heroic bust of Mazzini, I found my- 
f devoutly hoping that the Italian youth, who have 
nmitted their future to America, might indeed be¬ 
ne “the Apostles of the fraternity of nations” and 
lit our American citizenship might be built without 
turbing these foundations which were laid of old 





CHAPTER XII 
Tolstoyism 

The administration of charity in Chicago during 
winter following the World’s Fair had been of necessj 
most difficult for, although large sums had been gb 
to the temporary relief organization which endeavo 
5 to care for the thousands of destitute strangers strai 
ed in the city, we all worked under a sense of desper 
need and a paralyzing consciousness that our 
efforts were most inadequate to the situation. 

During the many relief visits I paid that winter , 
o tenement houses and miserable lodgings, I was c< 
stantly shadowed by a certain sense of shame tha , 
should be comfortable in the midst of such distrc,, 
I his resulted at times in a curious reaction against , 
the educational and philanthropic activites in whicl 
5 had been engaged. In the face of the desperate hunj 
and need, these could not but seem futile and supL 
ficial. The hard winter in Chicago had turned t. 
thoughts of many of us to these stern matters. |« 
young friend of mine who came daily to Hull-Hou 
o consulted me in regard to going into the paper wa , f 
house belonging to her father that she might there 
rags with the Polish girls; another young girl took 

238 II 



TOLSTOYISM 


239 


e in a sweatshop for a month, doing her work so 
:>ly and thoroughly that the proprietor had no 
jon that she had not been driven there by need; still 
9 others worked in a shoe factory; — and all this 
ipened before such adventures were undertaken in 5 
ter to procure literary material. It was in the follow- 
f winter that the pioneer effort in this direction, 
ter Wyckoff’s account of his vain attempt to find 
jk in Chicago, compelled even the sternest business 
1 to drop his assertion that “any man can find work 10 
j wants it.” 

he dealing directly with the simplest human wants 
• have been responsible for an impression which I 
ied about with me almost constantly for a period 
vo years and which culminated finally in a visit to 15 
toy, — that the Settlement, or Hull-House at 
:, was a mere pretense and travesty of the simple 
jlse “to live with the poor” so long as the residents 
not share the common lot of hard labor and scant 


■; 


2 o 


ctual experience had left me in much the same state 
ind I had been in after reading Tolstoy’s “What to 
which is a description of his futile efforts to re- 
h the unspeakable distress and want in the Moscow 
tier of 1881, and his inevitable conviction that only 25 
/ho literally shares his own shelter and food with 
needy can claim to have served them, 
oubtless it is much easier to see “what to do” in 






2 4 o TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

rural Russia, where all the conditions tend to make 
contrast as broad as possible between peasant 1, 
and noble idleness, than it is to see “what to do 
the interdependencies of the modern industrial < 
5 But for that very reason perhaps, Tolstoy’s clear st 
ment is valuable for that type of conscientious pe 
in every land who finds it hard, not only to walk in 
path of righteousness, but to discover where the [ 
lies. 

o I had read the books of Tolstoy steadily all the y 
since “My Religion” had come into my hands 
mediately after I left college. The reading of that t 
had made clear that men’s poor little efforts to do r 
are put forth for the most part in the chill of self- 
s trust; I became convinced that if the new social oi 
ever came, it would come by gathering to itself all 
pathetic human endeavor which had indicated 
forward direction. But I was most eager to ki 
whether lolstoy s undertaking to do his daily shat 
o the physical labor of the world, that labor which is 
disproportionate to the unnourished strength” of tl 
by whom it is ordinarily performed, had brought 
peace! 

I had time to review carefully many things in 
s mind during the long days of convalescence follov 
an illness of typhoid fever which I suffered in 
autumn of 1895. The illness was so prolonged that 
health was most unsatisfactory during the follov 


TOLSTOYISM 


241 


iter, and the next May I went abroad with my 
:nd, Miss Smith, to effect if possible a more complete 
overy. 

The prospect of seeing Tolstoy filled me with the 
)e of finding a clew to the tangled affairs of city 
/erty. I was but one of thousands of our contempor- 
es who were turning towards this Russian, not as to 
eer — 1 his message is much too confused and con- 
dictory for that — but as to a man who has had the 
lity to lift his life to the level of his conscience, to 
nslate his theories into action. 

)ur first few weeks in England were most stimulating, 
lozen years ago London still showed traces of “that 
jiting moment in the life of the nation when its 
nth is casting about for new enthusiasms,” but it 
meed still more of that British capacity to perform 
f hard work of careful research and self-examination 
*ich must precede any successful experiments in 
cial reform. Of the varied groups and individuals 
7use suggestions remained with me for years, I recall 
<haps as foremost those members of the new London 
Tnty Council whose far-reaching plans for the better- 
int of London could not but enkindle enthusiasm. 
t,vas a most striking expression of that efFort which 
r lid place beside the refinement and pleasure of the 
ill, a new refinement and a new pleasure born of the 
cimonwealth and the common joy of all the citizens, 
bt at this moment they prized the municipal pleasure 



242 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

boats upon the Thames no less than the extens 
schemes for the municipal housing of the poor 
people. Ben Tillet, 0 who was then an alderman, T 
docker sitting beside the duke,” took me in a rowb<| 
5 down the Ihames on a journey made exciting by 11 
hundreds of dockers who cheered him as we passed cji 
wharf after another on our way to his home at Greo 
wich; John Burns 0 showed us his wonderful civic ; 
complishments at Battersea, the plant turning strdi 
o sweepings into cement pavements, the technical schdi 
teaching boys brick laying and plumbing, and t; 
public bath in which the children of the Board Schll 
were receiving a swimming lesson — these measu; 
anticipating our achievements in Chicago by at leasio 
5 decade and a half. The new Education Bill, which ws 
destined to drag on for twelve years before it develops 
into the children’s charter, was then a storm center ; 
the House of Commons. Miss Smith and I were muir 
pleased to be taken to tea on the Parliament terrace t 
°its author, Sir John Gorst,° although we were qu : 
bewildered by the arguments we heard there for churK 
schools versus secular. : L 

We heard Keir Hardie 0 before a large audience J 
workingmen standing in the open square of Canni 
5 Town, outline the great things to be accomplished lir 
the then new Labor Party, and we joined the vast boi 
of men in the booming hymn : Hi 

When wilt Thou save the people, ’ ;i 

O God of Mercy, when! yl 



TOLSTOYISM 


243 


ding it hard to realize that we were attending a 
litical meeting. It seemed that moment as if the 
oes of democracy were more likely to come to pass 
1 English soil than upon our own. Robert Blatch- 
d’s° stirring pamphlets were in every one’s hands, and 5 
jeception given by Karl Marx’s 0 daughter, Mrs. 
eling, to Liebknecht 0 before he returned to Germany 
tserve a prison term for his lese majeste speech in the 
lichstag, gave us a glimpse of the old-fashioned 
ihodox Socialist who had not yet begun to yield to 10 
I biting ridicule of Bernard Shaw° although he 
ined in their midst that evening. 

' )ctavia Hill° kindly demonstrated to us the principles 
|>n which her well-founded business of rent collecting 
I; established, and with pardonable pride showed us is 
^ Red Cross Square with its cottages, marvelously 
li:uresque and comfortable, on two sides, and on the 
l|:d a public hall and common drawing-room for the 
* of all the tenants; the interior of the latter had been 
iorated by pupils of Walter Crane 0 with mural fres- 20 
ts portraying the heroism in the life of the modern 
Irkingman. 

[Vhile all this was warmly human, we also had op- 
itunities to see something of a group of men and 
men who were approaching the social problem from 25 
r study of economics; among others Mr. and Mrs. 
iney Webb who were at work on their “Industrial 
Imocracy” 0 ; Mr. John Hobson 0 who was lecturing on 
h evolution of modern capitalism. 







244 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


We followed factory inspectors on a round of du 


performed with a thoroughness and a trained int 


gence which were a revelation of the possibilitie: 
public service. When it came to visiting Settleme 
5 we were at least reassured that they were not fal 
into identical lines of effort. Canon Ingram, 0 who aj 
since become Bishop of London, was then wardeidj 
Oxford House and in the midst of an experiment wl 
pleased me greatly, the more because it was carriec' 


o by a churchman. Oxford House had hired all the c 
cert halls — vaudeville shows we later called then i 
Chicago — which were found in Bethnal Green, 
every Saturday night. The residents had censored 
programs, which they were careful to keep popu 
s and any workingman who attended a show in Betl 
Green on a Saturday night, and thousands of them < 
heard a program the better for this effort. 

One evening in University Hall Mrs. Hump 
Ward, 0 who had just returned from Italy, described 
o effect of the Italian salt tax in a talk which was evidt 
ly one in a series of lectures upon the economic wro 
which pressed heaviest upon the poor; at Brown 
House, 0 at the moment, they were giving prizes to th 
of their costermonger neighbors who could present 
s best cared-for donkeys, and the warden, Herbert Ste 
exhibited almost the enthusiasm of his well-knc 
brother for that crop of kindliness which can 
garnered most easily from the acreage where hun 







TOLSTOYISM 


245 

lings grow the thickest; at the Bermondsey Settlement 
ey were rejoicing that their University Extension 
udents had successfully passed the examinations for 
j.e University of London. The entire impression re¬ 
vived in England of research, of scholarship, of organ- 
led public spirit, was in marked contrast to the im- 
essions of my next visit in 1900, when the South 


frican'War 0 had absorbed the enthusiasm of the nation 
ud the wrongs at ‘The heart of the empire” were dis-- 
garded and neglected. 

London, of course, presented sharp differences to 
ussia where social conditions were written in black 
id white with little shading, like a demonstration of 
ie Chinese proverb, “Where one man lives in luxury, 

, lother is dying of hunger. ” 

The fair of Nijni-Novgorod° seemed to take us to the 
iry edge of a civilization so remote and eastern that 
le merchants brought their curious goods upon the 
acks of camels or on strange craft riding at anchor on 
le broad Volga. But even here our letter of intro- 
uction to Korolenko, 0 the novelist, brought us to a 
J^alization of that strange mingling of a remote past 
id a self-conscious present which Russia presents on 
/ery hand. This same contrast was also shown by the 
ilgrims trudging on pious errands to monasteries, to 
imbs, and to the Holy Land itself, with their bleeding 
;et bound in rags and thrust into bast sandals, and, on 
le other hand, by the revolutionists even then ad- 







246 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


vocating a Republic which should obtain not only 
political but also in industrial affairs. 

We had letters of introduction to Mr. and IV 


i 


A 


Aylmer Maude 0 of Moscow, since well known as 
s translators of “Resurrection” and others of Tolsto 
later works, who at that moment were on the eve 
leaving Russia in order to form an agricultural colcv 
in South England where they might support themseb 
by the labor of their hands. We gladly accepted IN 
o Maude’s offer to take us to Yasnaya Polyana and 
introduce us to Count Tolstoy, and never did a disci c 
journey towards his master with more enthusiasm th 
did our guide. When, however, Mr. Maude actua 
presented Miss Smith and myself to Count Tolstc 
5 knowing well his master’s attitude toward philanthrof 
he endeavored to make Hull-House appear much me 
noble and unique than I should have ventured to do. 

Tolstoy, standing by clad in his peasant garb, listen 1 
gravely but, glancing distrustfully at the sleeves of r 
o traveling gown, which unfortunately at that season we 
monstrous in size, he took hold of an edge and pulli 
out one sleeve to an interminable breadth, said qui 
simply that ‘ there was enough stuff on one arm to ma 
a frock for a little girl,” and asked me directly if I d 
5 not find “such a dress” a “barrier to the people, 
was too disconcerted to make a very clear explanatio 
although I tried to say that monstrous as my sleev 
were they did not compare in size with those of tl 








TOLSTOYISM 


247 


)rking girls in Chicago and that nothing would more 
ectively separate me from “the people” than a cotton 
Duse following the simple lines of the human form; 
^en if I had wished to imitate him and “dress as a 
°}asant,” it would have been hard to choose which 
asant among the thirty-six nationalities we had re- 
lo.ntly counted in our ward. Fortunately the countess 
me tamy rescue with a recital of her former attempts 
clothe hypothetical little girls in yards of material 
t from a train and other superfluous parts of her best 
ifwn until she had been driven to a firm stand which 
e advised me to take at once. But neither Countess 
aflstoy nor any other friend was on hand to help me 
t of my predicament later, when I was asked who 
ed” me, and how did I obtain “shelter”? Upon my 
ply that a farm a hundred miles from Chicago supplied 
e with the necessities of life, I fairly anticipated the 
next scathing question: “So you are an absentee land¬ 
ing? Do you think you will help the people more by 
ft 1 ding yourself to the crowded city than you would by 
linfing your own soil?” This new sense of discomfort 
nit er a failure to till my own soil was increased when 
ablstoy’s second daughter appeared at the five-o’clock 
d a table set under the trees, coming straight from the 
’ irvest field where she had been working with a group 
io peasants since five o’clock in the morning, not pre- 
vinding to work but really taking the place of a peasant 
tl am an who had hurt her foot. She was plainly much 


I o 


I 5 


2 o 


2 5 





248 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

exhausted but neither expected nor received sympai 
from the members ot a family who were quite ac<j 
tomed to see each other carry out their conviction i 
spite of discomfort and fatigue. The martyrdom: 
5 discomfort, however, was obviously much easier to ha 
than that to which, even to the eyes of the cass 
visitor, Count Tolstoy daily subjected himself, for i 
study in the basement of the conventional dwellig 
with its short shell of battered books and its scythe 
10 spade leaning against the wall, had many times li 

itself to that ridicule which is the most difficult forrr) 
martyrdom. 

That summer evening as we sat in the garden wit ; 
group of visitors from Germany, from England, sic 
is America, who had traveled to the remote Russ 1 
village that they might learn of this man, one could 1.1 
forbear the constant inquiry to one’s self, as to why ] 
was so regarded as sage and saint that this party >i 
people should be repeated each day of the year, t 
20 seemed to me then that we were all attracted by t 3 
sermon of the deed, because Tolstoy had made the c| 
supreme personal effort, one might almost say the cd 
frantic personal effort, to put himself into right relaticJ 
with the humblest people, with the men who tilled ]| 
2 5 soil, blacked his boots and cleaned his stables. Doull 
less the heaviest burden of our contemporaries is a cc] 
sciousness of a divergence between our democra ] 
theory on the one hand, that working people have] 








TOLSTOYISM 


249 


;ht to the intellectual resources of society, and the 
tual fact on the other hand, that thousands of them 
S 2 so overburdened with toil that there is no leisure 
1 r energy left for the cultivation of the mind. We 
nstantly suffer from the strain and indecision of be- 
’ ving this theory and acting as if we did not believe 
and this man who years before had tried “to get off 
e backs of the peasants,” who had at least simplified 
S life and worked with his hands, had come to be a 
ototype to many of his generation. 

' Doubtless all of the visitors sitting in the Tolstoy 
rden that evening had excused themselves from labor¬ 
er with their hands upon the theory that they were 
d ing something more valuable for society in other 
! iys. No one among our contemporaries has dissented 
1 >m this point of view so violently as I olstoy himself, 
d yet no man might so easily have excused himself 
>m hard and rough work on the basis of his genius and 
his intellectual contributions to the world. So far, 

' wever, from considering his time too valuable to he 
ent in labor in the field or in making shoes, our great 
1 st was too eager to know life to be willing to give up 
is companionship of mutual labor. One instinctively 
and reasons why it was easier for a Russian than for 
e rest of us, to reach this conclusion, the Russian 
0 asants have a proverb which says: Labor is the 

lt .use that love lives in,” by which they mean that no 
' tq people nor group of people, can come into affec- 





250 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

tionate relations with each other unless they carry 
together a mutual task, and when the Russian peaf 
talks of labor he means labor on the soil, or, to use 
phrase of the great peasant, BonderefF, “bread labc 
5 1 hose monastic orders founded upon agricultural lal 
those philosophical experiments like Brook Farm ; 
many another, have attempted to reduce to action i 
same truth. Tolstoy himself has written many till 
his own convictions and attempts in this direction, p 
iohaps never more tellingly than in the description* 
Lavin s morning spent in the harvest field, when he 1 
his sense of grievance and isolation and felt a strai 
new brotherhood for the peasants, in proportion as 
rhythmic motion of his scythe became one with the 
15 the long dinner table laid in the garden were 1 
various traveling guests, the grown-up daughters, sj 
the younger children with their governess. The count 
presided over the usual European dinner served 
men, but the count and the daughter who had worl 
20 all day in the fields, ate only porridge and black bre 
and drank only kvas, the fare oi the hay-maki 
peasants. Of course we are all accustomed to the f; 
that those who perform the heaviest labor, eat t 
coarsest and simplest fare at the end of the day, but 
251s not often that we sit at the same table with th( 
while we ourselves eat the more elaborate food prepar 
by some one else s labor, iolstoy ate his simple supp 
without remark or comment upon the food his farm 






TOLSTOYISM 


251 


vid guests preferred to eat, assuming that they, as well 
is: he, had settled the matter with their own consciences. 
e'The Tolstoy household that evening was much inter¬ 
red in the fate of a young Russian spy who had re- 
ab|ntly come to Tolstoy in the guise of a country school- 5 
master, in order to obtain a copy of “Life,” which had 
t ;en interdicted by the censor of the press. After spend¬ 
ing the night in talk with Tolstoy, the spy had gone 
pivay with a copy of the forbidden manuscript but, 
n ^fortunately for himself, having become converted to 10 
blstoy’s views he had later made a full confession to 
an e authorities and had been exiled to Siberia. Tolstoy, 
biding that it was most unjust to exile the disciple 
eiihile he, the author of the book, remained at large, had 
minted out this inconsistency in an open letter to one 15 
a j‘ the Moscow newspapers. I he discussion of this in¬ 
cident, of course, opened up the entire subject of non- 
:sistance, and curiously enough I was disappointed in 
bolstoy’s position in the matter. It seemed to me that 
rep made too great a distinction between the use of 20 
anysical force and that moral energy which can override 
(bother’s differences and scruples with equal ruthless- 


2SS. 


With that inner sense of mortification with which one 
nds one’s self at difference with the great authority, I 25 
^called the conviction of the early Hull-House residents 
|iat whatever of good the Settlement had to offer should 
| e put into positive terms, that we might live with op-' 



252 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOETSE 


position to no man, with recognition of the good in ev< J 
man, even the most wretched. We had often deparis 
from this principle, but had it not in every case beei; 
confession of weakness, and had we not always fou 

5 antagonism a foolish and unwarrantable expenditure 
energy? 


The conversation at dinner and afterwards, althou 
conducted with animation and sincerity, for t 
moment stirred vague misgivings within me. W 
ioTolstoy more logical than life warrants? Could t 
wrongs of life be reduced to the terms of unrequitl 
labor and all be made right if each person perform! 
the amount necessary to satisfy his own wants? Was 
not always easy to put up a strong case if one took tl 
is naturalistic view of life? But what about the histor 
view, the inevitable shadings and modifications whi< 
life itself brings to its own interpretation? Miss Smii 
and I took a night train back to Moscow in that tumu 
of feeling which is always produced by contact with 
2 ° cons cience making one more of those determined effor 
to probe to the very foundations of the mysterioi 
world in which we find ourselves. A horde of perplexir 
questions, concerning those problems of existence c 
which in happier moments we catch but fleeting glinnq 
2 s ses and at which we even then stand aghast, pursued i 
relentlessly on the long journey through the great whe; 
plains of South Russia, through the crowded Ghetto 0 c 
\\ arsaw, and finally into the smiling fields of German 















TOLSTOYISM 


253 


here the peasant men and women were harvesting the 
ain. I remember that through the sight of those toil- 
g peasants, I made a curious connection between the 
ead labor advocated by Tolstoy and the comfort the 
irvest fields are said to have once brought to Luther 5 
hen, much perturbed by many theological difficulties, 
h suddenly forgot them all in a gush of gratitude for 
ere bread, exclaiming, “How it stands, that golden 
dlow corn, on its fine tapered stem; the meek earth, at 
od’s kind bidding, has produced it once again!” At 10 
ast the toiling poor had this comfort of bread labor, 
id perhaps it did not matter that they gained it un- 
lowingly and painfully, if only they walked in the 
ith of labor. In the exercise of that curious power 
issessed by the theorists to inhibit all experiences 15 
hich do not enhance his doctrine, I did not permit 
yself to recall that which I knew so well — that 
;igent and unremitting labor grants the poor no leisure 
r en in the supreme moments of human suffering and 
!at “all griefs are lighter with bread.” 20 

I may have wished to secure this solace for myself at 
e cost of the least possible expenditure of time and 
,ergy, for during the next month in Germany, when I 
iad everything of Tolstoy’s that had been translated 
ito English, German, or French, there grew up in my 25 
find a conviction that what I ought to do upon my re- 
i rn to Hull-House, was to spend at least two hours 
rery morning in the little bakery which we had recent- 



254 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

ly added to the equipment of our coffee-house. T < 
hours’ work would be but a wretched compromise, Ij 
it was hard to see how I could take more time outij 
each day. I had been taught to bake bread in my chi 
s hood not only as a household accomplishment, but 
cause my father, true to his miller’s tradition, had 
sisted that each one of his daughters on her twel 
birthday must present him with a satisfactory wh< 
loaf of her own baking, and he was most exigent as 
othe quality of this test loaf. What could be more 
keeping with my training and tradition than baki 
bread? I did not quite see how my activity would fit 
with that of the German union baker who presided ov 
the Hull-House bakery but all such matters w< 
s secondary and certainly could be arranged. It may 
that I had thus to pacify my aroused conscience befi 
I could settle down to hear Wagner’s “Ring” at Be 
reuth; it may be that I had fallen a victim to t 
phrase, “bread labor”; but at any rate I held fast 
othe belief that I should do this, through the ent 
journey homeward, on land and sea, until I actually ; 
rived in Chicago when suddenly the whole scheii 
seemed to me as utterly preposterous as it doubth 
was. The half dozen people invariably waiting to si 
s me after breakfast, the piles of letters to be opened ai): 
answered, the demand of actual and pressing hum 1 
wants—were these all to be pushed aside and ask ; 
to wait while I saved my soul by two hours’ work i 
baking bread? i 



TOLSTOYISM 


255 


Although my resolution was abandoned, this may be 
t best place to record the efforts of more doughty 
t lls to carry out Tolstoy’s conclusions. It was per- 
| ps inevitable that Tolstoy colonies should be founded, 
hough Tolstoy himself has always insisted that each 5 
jin should live his life as nearly as possible in the place 
ltfwhich he was born. The visit Miss Smith and I made 
tyear or two later to a colony in one of the southern 
sktes, portrayed for us most vividly both the weakness 
d the strange august dignity of the Tolstoy position. 10 
; le colonists at Commonwealth held but a short creed, 
tiey claimed in fact that the difficulty is not to state 
)\ ith but to make moral conviction operative upon 
• f tual life, and they announced it their intention “to 
ey the teachings of Jesus in all matters of labor and 15 
f e use of property.” They would thus transfer the 
idication of creed from the church to the open field, 

>m dogma to experience. 

t The day Miss Smith and I visited the Commonwealth 
lony of threescore souls, they were erecting a house 2 o 
r the family of a one-legged man, consisting of a wife 
d nine children, who had come the week before in a 
rlorn prairie schooner from Arkansas. As this was the 
Jrgest family the little colony contained, the new house 
vis to be the largest yet erected. Upon our surprise at 25 
I is literal giving “to him that asketh, we inquired if 
te policy of extending food and shelter to all who ap- 
pied, without test of creed or ability, might not result 
i the migration ol all the neighboring poorhouse popu- 





256 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

lation into the colony. We were told that this actu;i 
had happened during the winter until the colony H 
of corn meal and cow peas had proved so unattract a 
that the paupers had gone back, for even the poorest)! 
s the southern poorhouses occasionally supplied haul 
with the pone if only to prevent scurvy, from which ^ 
colonists themselves had suffered. The difficulty ofvl 
poorhouse people had thus settled itself by the sh 5 
poverty of the situation, a poverty so biting that 1 
10 only ones willing to face it were those sustained b} 
conviction of its righteousness. The fields and garde 
were being worked by an editor, a professor, a cler^ 
man, as well as by artisans and laborers, the fruit the 
of to be eaten by themselves and their families or 
15 any other families who might arrive from Arkans; 
The colonists were very conventional in matters 
family relationship and had broken with society only 
regard to the conventions pertaining to labor ai 
pioperty. We had a curious experience at the end 
20 the day when we were driven into the nearest tow 
We had taken with us as a guest the wife of the preside 
of the colony, wishing to give her a dinner at the hot< 
because she had girlishly exclaimed during a conve 
sation that at times during the winter she had becom < 
2 5 so eager to hear good music that it had seemed to h t 
as if she were actually hungry for it, almost as hungi 
as she was for a beefsteak. Yet as we drove away v 1 
had the curious sensation that while the experiment w; r ; 




TOLSTOYISM 


257 


viously coming to an end, in the midst of its priva- 
ns it yet embodied the peace of mind which comes 
him who insists upon the logic of life whether it is 
sonable or not the fanatic’s joy in seeing his own 
mula translated into action. At any rate, as we 
:ched the commonplace southern town of workaday 
:‘n and women, for one moment its substantial build- 
<s, its solid brick churches, its ordered streets, divided 
b those of the rich and those of the poor, seemed 
ch more unreal to us than the little struggling colony 
'.had left behind. We repeated to each other that in 
i the practical judgments and decisions of life, we 
st part company with logical demonstration; that if 
stop for it in each case, we can never go on at all; 
yet, in spite of this, when conscience does become 
dictator of the daily life of a group of men, it forces 
admiration as no other modern spectacle has power 
lo. It seemed but a mere incident that this group 
uld have lost sight of the facts of life in their earnest 
eavor to put to the test the things of the spirit, 
knew little about the colony started by Mr. Maude 
Purleigh containing several of Tolstoy’s followers 
) were not permitted to live in Russia, and we did 
see Mr. Maude again until he came to Chicago on 
way from Manitoba, whither he had transported the 
>nd group of Dukhobors, a religious sect who had 
crested all of Tolstoy’s followers because of their 
ral acceptance of non-resistance and other Christian 


I o 


1 5 


2 O 


2 5 



258 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

doctrines which are so strenuously advocated h 
Tolstoy. It was for their benefit that Tolstoy a 
finished and published “Resurrection,” brea n 
through his long-kept resolution against novel wrii ij 
s After the Dukhobors were settled in Canada, of the, 1 
hundred dollars left from the “Resurrection” fu : 
one half was given to Hull-House. It seemed post) 
to spend this fund only for the relief of the most pr 
tive wants of food and shelter on the part of the r 1 
i o needy families. 









CHAPTER XIII 


Public Activities and Investigations 

M 

J)ne of the striking features of our neighborhood 
jnty years ago, and one to which we never became 
r mciled, was the presence of huge wooden garbage 
u es fastened to the street pavement in which the 
disturbed refuse accumulated day by day. The 5 
:em of garbage collecting was inadequate through- 
the city but it became the greatest menace in a 
d such as ours, where the normal amount of waste 
much increased by the decayed fruit and vegetables 
arded by the Italian and Greek fruit peddlers, and io 
the residuum left over from the piles of filthy rags 
ch were fished out of the city dumps and brought to 
homes of the rag pickers for further sorting and 
hing. 

he children of our neighborhood twenty years ago i 5 
r ed their games in and around these huge garbage 
ss. They were the first objects that the toddling 
I learned to climb; their bulk afforded a barricade 
i their contents provided missiles in all the battles 
he older boys; and finally they became the seats 2 o 
in which absorbed lovers held enchanted converse, 
'are obliged to remember that all children eat every- 


259 



26 o TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

thing which they find and that odors have a curious 
intimate power of entwining themselves into our ten< 
est memories, before even the residents of Hull-Hc 
can understand their own early enthusiasm for the 
s moval of these boxes and the establishment of a be 
system of refuse collection. 

It is easy for even the most conscientious citizei 
Chicago to forget the foul smells of the stockyards 
the garbage dumps, when he is living so far from tl 
othat he is only occasionally made conscious of tl 
existence but the residents of a Settlement are perfc 
constantly surrounded by them. During our first tl 
years on Halsted Street, we had established a small 
cinerator at Hull-House and we had many times 
s ported the untoward conditions of the ward to the C 
Hall. We had also arranged many talks for the 
migrants, pointing out that although a woman r 
sweep her own doorway in her native village and al 
the refuse to innocently decay in the open air and s 
o shine, in a crowded city quarter, if the garbage is 
properly collected and destroyed, a tenement-hc 
mother may see her children sicken and die, and t 
the immigrants must therefore, not only keep their ( 
houses clean, but must also help the authorities to k 
5 the city clean. 

Possibly our efforts slightly modified the worst c 
ditions but they still remained intolerable, and 
fourth summer the situation became for me absolui 


ACTIVITIES AND INVESTIGATIONS 261 


Operate when I realized in a moment of panic that my 
dicate little nephew for whom I was guardian, could 
Dt be with me at Hull-House at all unless the sickening 
ilors were reduced. I may well be ashamed that other 
dicate children who were torn from their families, 
)t into boarding school but into eternity, had not long 
Tore driven me to effective action. Under the direc- 
on of the first man who came as a resident to Hull- 
ouse we began a systematic investigation of the city 
stem of garbage collection, both as to its efficiency in 
her wards and its possible connection with the death 
te in the various wards of the city. 

The Hull-House Woman’s Club had been organized 
ie year before by the resident kindergartner who had 
•st inaugurated a mothers’ meeting. The members 
ime together, however, in quite a new way that sum- 
er when we discussed with them the high death rate 
» persistent in our ward. After several club meetings 
svoted to the subject, despite the fact that the death 
te rose highest in the congested foreign colonies and 
)t in the streets in which most of the Irish American 
ub women lived, twelve of their number undertook in 
inflection with the residents, to carefully investigate 
ie condition of the alleys. During August and Septem- 
ir the substantiated reports of violations of the law 
nt in from Hull-House to the health department were 
ie thousand and thirty-seven. For the club woman 
ho had. finished a long day’s work of washing or ironing 



262 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

followed by the cooking of a hot supper, it would h < 
been much easier to sit on her doorstep during a sunn ■ 
evening than to go up and down ill-kept alleys and g 
into trouble with her neighbors over the condition j 
s their garbage boxes. It required both civic enterp ] 
and moral conviction to he willing to do this three ev 
nigs a week during the hottest and most uncomforta 
months of the year. Nevertheless, a certain numbei 
women persisted, as did the residents, and three c 
i o inspectors in succession were transferred from the w; 
because of unsatisfactory services. Still the death r; 
remained high and the condition seemed little impro\ 
throughout the next winter. In sheer desperation, t 
following spring when the city contracts were award 
x 5 for the removal of garbage, with the backing of two wt 
known business men, I put in a bid for the garbage j 
moval of the nineteenth ward. My paper was thro\ 
out on a technicality but the incident induced t 
mayor to appoint me the garbage inspector of the wa 
20 I he salary was a thousand dollars a year, and t 
loss of that political “plum” made a great stir amo 
the politicians. I he position was no sinecure wheth 
regarded from the point of view of getting up at six 
the morning to see that the men were early at work; 

2sol following the loaded wagons, uneasily dropping the 
contents at intervals, to their dreary destination at tl 
dump; or of insisting that the contractor must increa- 
the number of his wagons from nine to thirteen an 










I o 


i 


ACTIVITIES AND INVESTIGATIONS 263 

)m thirteen to seventeen, although he assured me that 
nil lost money on every one and that the former in¬ 
ti ector had let him off with seven; or of taking careless 
idlords into court because they would not provide the 
pioper garbage receptacles; or of arresting the tenant 5 
10 tried to make the garbage wagons carry away the 
ntents of his stable. 

With the two or three residents who nobly stood by, 
cb set up six of those doleful incinerators which are 
vi pposed to burn garbage with the fuel collected in the 
r ey itself. The one factory in town which could utilize 
tin cans was a window weight factory, and we 
luged that with ten times as many tin cans as it could 
e — much less would pay for. We made desperate 
tempts to have the dead animals removed by the 15 
ntractor who was paid most liberally by the city for 
at purpose but who, we slowly discovered, always 
ade the police ambulances do the work, delivering the 
rcasses upon freight cars for shipment to a soap factory 
Indiana where they were sold for a good price al- 20 
lough the contractor himself was the largest stock- 
blder in the concern. Perhaps our greatest achieve¬ 
ment was the discovery of a pavement eighteen inches 
ider the surface in a narrow street, although after it 
as found we triumphantly discovered a record of its 25 
( istence in the city archives. The Italians living on the 
reet were much interested but displayed little aston- 
hment, perhaps because they were accustomed to see 








264 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

buried cities exhumed. This pavement became t 
casus belli 0 between myself and the street commission 
when I insisted that its restoration belonged to hii 
after I had removed the first eight inches of garba^ 
5 d he matter was finally settled by the mayor himse 
who permitted me to drive him to the entrance of ti 
street in what the children called my “garbage phaetoi 
and who took my side of the controversy. 

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, who hi 
i o done some excellent volunteer inspection in boi 
Chicago and Pittsburg, became my deputy and pe 
foimed the work in a most thoroughgoing manner f( 
three years. During the last two she was under tl 
regime of civil service, for in 1895, to the great joy <1 
x 5 many citizens, the Illinois legislature made that possibl 
Many of the foreign-born women of the ward wer 
much shocked by this abrupt departure into the ways c 
men, and it took a great deal of explanation to conve 
the idea even remotely that if it were a womanly tas 
20 to go about in tenement houses in order to nurse th 
sick, it might be quite as womanly to go through th 
same district in order to prevent the breeding of so 
called filth diseases. ’ While some of the women enthu 
siastically approved the slowly changing conditions anc 
2 s saw that their housewifely duties logically extended t< 
the adjacent alleys and streets, they yet were quit* 
certain that it was not a lady’s job. ” A revelation 0 
this attitude was made one day in a conversation whicl 


ACTIVITIES AND INVESTIGATIONS 265 

inspector heard vigorously carried on in a laundry, 
e of the employees was leaving and was expressing 
mind concerning the place in no measured terms, 
iming up her contempt for it as follows: “I would 
her be the girl who goes about in the alleys than to 5 
y here any longer!” 

\nd yet the spectacle of eight hours’ work for eight 
irs’ pay, the even-handed justice to all citizens ir- 
3 ective of “pull,” the dividing of responsibility be- 
:en landlord and tenant, and the readiness to enforce 10 
dience to law from both, was, perhaps, one of the 
5 t valuable demonstrations which could have been 
de. Such daily living on the part of the office holder 
>f infinitely more value than many talks on civics 
after all, we credit most easily that which we see. is 
i careful inspection combined with other causes, 
ught about a great improvement in the cleanliness 
comfort of the neighborhood and one happy day, 

;n the death rate of our ward was found to have 
pped from third to seventh in the list of city wards 20 
was so reported to our Woman’s Club, the applause 
ich followed recorded the genuine sense of participa- 
1 in the result, and a public spirit which had “made 
d.” But the cleanliness of the ward was becoming 
;h too popular to suit our all-powerful alderman and, 2 5 
ough we felt fatuously secure under the regime of 
l service, he found a way to circumvent us by 
linating the position altogether. He introduced an 





266 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


I O 


ordinance into the city council which combined th 
collection of refuse with the cleaning and repairing c 
the streets, the whole to be placed under a war 
superintendent. The office of course was to be fillei 
5 under civil service regulations but only men wer 
eligible to the examination. Although this latter regula 
tion was afterwards modified in favor of one woman 
it was retained long enough to put the nineteenth war 
inspector out of office. 

Of course our experience in inspecting only made u 
more conscious of the wretched housing conditions ove 
which we had been distressed from the first. It wa 
during the World’s Fair summer that one of the Hull 
House residents in a public address upon housing reforir 
i s used as an example of indifferent landlordism a larg 
block in the neighborhood occupied by small tenemen 
and stables unconnected with a street sewer, as wa 
much similar property in the vicinity. In the lectu 
the resident spared neither a description of the propert 
20 nor the name of the owner. The young man who own 
the property was justly indignant at this public metho 
of attack and promptly came to investigate the con 
dition of the property. Together we made a careful tour 
of the houses and stables and in the face of the con 
2s ditions that we found there, I could not but agree with 
him that supplying South Italian peasants with sanitary 
appliances seemed a difficult undertaking. Nevertheless 
he was unwilling that the block should remain in its 








ACTIVITIES AND INVESTIGATIONS 267 

•lorable state, and he finally cut through the dilemma 
h the rash proposition that he would give a free 
>e of the entire tract to Hull-House, accompanying 
offer, however, with the warning remark, that if we 
uld choose to use the income from the rents in 5 
itary improvements we should be throwing our 
ney away. 

wen tvhen we decided that the houses were so bad 
t we could not undertake the task of improving 
m, he was game and stuck to his proposition that 10 
should have a free lease. We finally submitted a 
1 that the houses should be torn down and the entire 
:t turned into a playground, although cautious- ad- 
;rs intimated that it would be very inconsistent to 
for subscriptions for the support of Hull-House when 15 
were known to have thrown away an income of two 
usand dollars a year. We, however, felt that a 
:tacle of inconsistency was better than one of bad 
llordism and so the worst of the houses were de- 
ished, the best three were sold and moved across 20 
street under careful provision that they might never 
used for junkshops or saloons, and a public play- 
tnd was finally established. Hull-House became 
•onsible for its management for ten years, at the 
of which time it was turned over to the City Play- 2 5 
ind Commission although from the first the city de- 
id a policeman who was responsible for its general 
ir and who became a valued adjunct of the House. 



268 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


During fifteen years this public-spirited owner of t 
property paid all the taxes, and when the block v 
finally sold he made possible the playground equipme 
of a near-by school yard. On the other hand, the c 
5 possessed tenants, a group of whom had to be evict 
by legal process before their houses could be torn dov 
have never ceased to mourn their former estates. Oe 
the other day I met upon the street an old Itali 
harness maker, who said that he had never succeed 
ioso well anywhere else nor found a place that “seem 
so much like Italy.” 

Festivities of various sorts were held on this eai 
playground, always a May day celebration with i 
Maypole dance and its May queen. I remember th 
15 one year the honor of being queen was offered to t 
little girl who should pick up the largest number 
scraps of paper which littered all the streets and alle} 
The children that spring had been organized into 
league and each member had been provided with a st 
20 piece of wire upon the sharpened point of which str 
bits of paper were impaled and later soberly counted ( 
into a large box in the Hull-House alley. The litt 
Italian girl who thus won the scepter took it ve 
gravely as the just reward of hard labor, and we we 
2 s all so absorbed in the desire for clean and tidy stree 
that we were wholly oblivious to the incongruity of th 
selecting “the queen of love and beauty.” 

It was at the end of the second year that we receiv 


I 













ACTIVITIES AND INVESTIGATIONS 269 

isit from the warden of Toynbee Hall° and his wife, 
they were returning to England from a journey 
and the world. They had lived in East London for 
ly years, and had been identified with the public 
vements for its betterment. They were much s 
-ked that, in a new country with conditions still 
;tic and hopeful, so little attention had been paid to 
eriments and methods of amelioration which had 
ady been tried; and they looked in vain through our 
ary for blue books and governmental reports which 1 
(>rded painstaking study into the conditions of 
lish cities. 

hey were the first of a long line of English visitors 
xpress the conviction that many things in Chicago 
i untoward, not through paucity of public spirit but 1 
ugh a lack of political machinery adapted to modern 
life. This was not all of the situation but perhaps 
casual visitor could be expected to see that these 
Iters of detail seemed unimportant to a city in the 
flush of youth, impatient of correction and con- 2 
:ed that all would be well with its future. The most 
ous faults were those connected with the congested 
;ing of the immigrant population, nine tenths of 
1 from the country, who carried on all sorts of 
itional activities in the crowded tenements. That 2 
oup of Greeks should be permitted to slaughter 
p in a basement, that Italian women should be 
?ed to sort over rags collected from the city dumps, 





270 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

not only within the city limits hut in a court swarm 
with little children, that immigrant bakers should c 
tinue unmolested to bake bread for their neighbors 
unspeakably filthy^ spaces under the pavement, 
s peared incredible to visitors accustomed to careful c 
regulations. I recall two visits made to the ItaL 
quarter by John Burns — the second, thirteen yei| 
after the first. During the latter visit it seemed to L 
unbelievable that a certain house owned by a r 
o Italian should have been permitted to survive. He f 
membered with the greatest minuteness the positid 
of the houses on the court, with the exact space betwe 
the front and rear tenements, and he asked at 01 
whether we had been able to cut a window into a d; 
shall as he had recommended thirteen years before. J 
though we were obliged to confess that the landlc 
would not permit the window to be cut, we were a 
to report that a City Homes Association had exis : 
for ten years; that following a careful study of tenemr 
oconditions in Chicago, the text of which had be' 
written by a Hull-House resident, the association E 
obtained the enactment of a model tenement-hoijt 
code, and that their secretary had carefully watched In 
administration of the law for years so that its operatiii 
5 might not be minimized by the granting of too man 
exceptions in the city council. Our progress still seenov 
slow to Mr. Burns because in Chicago the actual hou 
were quite unchanged, embodying features long sir 




ACTIVITIES AND INVESTIGATIONS 271 

lared illegal in London. Only this year could we 
re reported to him, had he again come to challenge 
that the provisions of the law had at last been ex- 
ded to existing houses and that a conscientious corps 
nspectors under an efficient chief, were fast remedy- 
the most glaring evils, while a band of nurses and 
•tors were following hard upon the “trail of the white 

5 y 

trse. 

rhe mere consistent enforcement of existing laws 
1 efforts for their advance often placed Hull-House, 
least temporarily, into strained relations with its 
ghbors. I recall a continuous warfare against local 
dlords who would move wrecks of old houses as a 
:leus for new ones in order to evade the provisions of 
: building code, and a certain Italian neighbor who 
s filled with bitterness because his new rear tenement 
s discovered to be illegal. It seemed impossible to 
ke him understand that the health of the tenants 
s in any wise as important as his undisturbed rents. 
Nevertheless many evils constantly arise in Chicago 
m congested housing which wiser cities forestall and 
:vent: the inevitable boarders crowded into a dark 
lement already too small for the use of the im- 
»rant family occupying it; the surprisingly large 
nber of delinquent girls who have become criminally 
olved with their own fathers and uncles; the school 
Idren who cannot find a quiet spot in which to read 
study and who perforce go into the streets each 




272 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

evening; the tuberculosis superinduced and fostered 1 
the inadequate rooms and breathing spaces. One 
the Hull-House residents, under the direction of 
Chicago physician who stands high as an authority < 
5 tuberculosis and who devotes a large proportion of 1 
time to our vicinity, made an investigation into housii 
conditions as related to tuberculosis with a result - 
startling as that of the “lung block” in New York. 

It is these subtle evils of wretched and inadequa s 
o housing which are often most disastrous. In the sur 
mer of 1902 during an epidemic of typhoid fever j 
which our ward, although containing but one thirt 
sixth of the population of the city, registered one six' 
of the total number of deaths, two of the Hull-Hou 
s residents made an investigation of the methods jj 
plumbing in the houses adjacent to conspicuous grouj 
of fever cases. They discovered among the people wl 
had been exposed to the infection, a widow who hi 
lived in the ward for a number of years, in a comfortab; 
olittle house of her own. Although the Italian in, 
migrants were closing in all round her, she was n< 
willing to sell her property and to move away until si 
had finished the education of her children. In the meai 
time she held herself quite aloof from her Italian neigl 
s bors and could never be drawn into any of the publ 
efforts to secure a better code of tenement-hou; 
sanitation. Her two daughters were sent to an eastei 
college. One June when one of them had graduate 


ACTIVITIES AND INVESTIGATIONS 273 

l the other still had two years before she took her 

| ;ree, they came to the spotless little house and to 
ir self-sacrificing mother for the summer holiday, 
ey both fell ill with typhoid fever and one daughter 
d because the mother’s utmost efforts could not keep 
infection out of her own house. 1 he entire disaster 
)rds, perhaps, a fair illustration of the futility of the 
ividual conscience which would isolate a family from 
; rest of the community and its interests. 

The careful information collected concerning the 

I tapostion of the typhoid cases to the various systems 
dumbing and nonplumbing, was made the basis of a 
:teriological study by another resident, Dr. Alice 
imilton, 0 as to the possibility of the infection having 
1 n carried by flies. Her researches were so convincing 
11 they have been incorporated into the body of 
hntific data supporting that theory, but there were 
I) practical results from the investigation. It was 
bovered that the wretched sanitary appliances 
lough which alone the infection could have become 
I widely spread, would not have been permitted to 
(lain, unless the city inspector had either been 
ninally careless or open to the arguments of favored 
i dlords. 

The agitation finally resulted in a long and stirring 
tl before the civil service board of half of the em- 
yees in the Sanitary Bureau, with the final discharge 
eleven out of the entire force of twenty-four. The 







274 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

inspector in our neighborhood was a kindly old m; 
greatly distressed over the affair, and quite unable 
understand why he should not have used his disereti 
as to the time when a landlord should he forced to p 
5 in modern appliances. If he was “very poor,” or “ji 
about to sell his place,” or “sure that the house wot 
be torn down to make room for a factory,” why shot 
one “inconvenience” him? The old man died SO' 
after the trial, feeling persecuted to the very last a i 

ionot in the least understanding what it was all aboi 
We were amazed at the commercial ramifications whi 
graft in the City Hall involved and at the indignati 
which interference with it produced. Hull-House lc 
some large subscriptions as the result of this investig 

1 s tion, a loss which, if not easy to bear, was at least coi 

prehensible. We also uncovered unexpected graft 
connection with the plumbers’ unions, and but for t 
fearless testimony of one of their members, could nev 
have brought the trial to a successful issue. 

20 Inevitable misunderstanding also developed in co 
nection with the attempt on the part of Hull-Hou 
residents to prohibit the sale of cocaine to minor 
which brought us into sharp conflict with many dru 
gists. I recall an Italian druggist living on the edge « 

2 5 the neighborhood, who finally came with a committt 

of lus fellow countrymen to see what Hull-House w T ante 
of him, thoroughly convinced that no such effort coul 
be disinterested. One dreary trial after another ha 




ACTIVITIES AND INVESTIGATIONS 275 

:n lost through the inadequacy of the existing legis- 
ion and after many attempts to secure better legal 
ulation of its sale, a new law with the cooperation of 
kny agencies was finally secured in 1907. Through all 
Is the Italian druggist, who had greatly profited by 
A sale of cocaine to boys, only felt outraged and 
fised. And yet the thought of this campaign brings 
lore my mind with irresistible force, a young Italian 
jp- who died — a victim to the drug at the age of 
Jenteen. He had been in our kindergarten as a hand- 
ine merry child, in our clubs as a vivacious boy, and 
in gradually there was an eclipse of all that was 
Imated and joyous and promising, and when I at last 
him in his coffin, it was impossible to connect that 
>;gard shriveled body with what I had known before. 
V midwife investigation, undertaken in connection 
h the Chicago Medical Society, while showing the 
1 at need of further state regulation in the interest of the 
1st ignorant mothers and helpless children, brought 
into conflict with one of the most venerable of all 
toms. Was all this a part of the unending struggle 
ween the old and new, or were these oppositions so 
:xpected and so unlooked for merely a reminder of 
t old bit of wisdom that “there is no guarding against 
^rpretations”? Perhaps more subtle still, they were 
i to that very super-refinement of disinterestedness 
ich will not justify itself, that it may feel superior to 
die opinion. Some of our investigations of course 


I o 


I 5 


2 o 


2 5 





276 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

had no such untoward results, such as “An Intens 
Study of Truancy” undertaken by a resident of Eli 
House in connection with the compulsory educati 
department of the Board of Education and the Visiti 
5 Nurses Association. The resident, Mrs. Britton, 0 wlj 
having had charge of our children’s clubs for ma 
years, knew tnousands of children in the neigh.borho( 1 
made a detailed study of three hundred families, traci 
back the habitual truancy of the children to econon 
ioand social causes. This investigation preceded a me 
interesting conference on truancy held under a coi 
mittee of which I was a member from the Chica 
Board of Education. It left lasting results upon t 
administration of the truancy law as well as the c 
1 5 operation of volunteer bodies. 

We continually conduct small but careful investig, 
tions at Hull-House, which may guide us in our ir 
mediate doings such as two recently undertaken 1 
Mrs. Britton, one upon the reading of school childrr 
20 before new books were bought for the children’s civ 
libraries, and another on the proportion of tuberculos 
among school children, before we opened a little expei 
mental outdoor school on one of our balconies. Son 
of the Hull-House investigations are purely negative i 
2 s result; we once made an attempt to test the fatigue < 
factory girls in order to determine how far overwor 
superinduced the tuberculosis to which such a surprisin 
number of them were victims. The one scientific ir 






ACTIVITIES AND INVESTIGATIONS 277 

rument it seemed possible to use was an ergograph, 0 a 
mplicated and expensive instrument kindly lent to 
from the physiological laboratory of the University 
Chicago. I remember the imposing procession we 
ade from Hull-House to the factory full of working 5 
)men, in which the proprietor allowed us to make the 
sts; first there was the precious instrument on a hand 
tck guarded by an anxious student and the young 
lysician who was going to take the tests every after- 
on; then there was Dr. Hamilton, the resident in 10 
arge of the investigation, walking with a scientist who 
is interested to see that the instrument was properly 
stalled; I followed in the rear to talk once more to 
e proprietor of the factory to be quite sure that he 
>uld permit the experiment to go on. T he result of all 15 
is preparation, however, was to have the instrument 
bord less fatigue at the end of the day than at the 
tginning, not because the girls had not worked hard 
id were not “dog tired” as they confessed, but be¬ 
muse the instrument was not fitted to find it out. 20 
For many years we have administered a branch 
lition of the federal post office at Hull-House, which 
h applied for in the first instance because our neigh- 
:rs lost such a large percentage of the money they 
lit to Europe, through the commissions to middle 2 5 
fen. The experience in the post office constantly gave 
data for urging the establishment of postal savings 
i we saw one perplexed immigrant after another turn- 



278 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


ing away in bewilderment when he was told that i 
United States post office did not receive savings. 

We find increasingly, however, that the best resi 


are to be obtained in investigations as in other unc 


s takings, by combining our researches with those 
other public bodies or with the state itself. When 1 
the Chicago Settlements found themselves distres 
over the condition of the newsboys who, because tlj 
are merchants and not employees, do not come un 
:othe provisions of the Illinois child labor law, tl 
united in the investigation of a thousand young ne^ 
boys, who were all interviewed on the streets during i 
same twenty-four hours. 1 heir school and domes 
status was easily determined later, for many of the be 
s lived in the immediate neighborhoods of the ten Sett j 
ments which had undertaken the investigation. \ 
report embodying the results of the investigation reco 
mended a city ordinance containing features from t 
Boston and Buffalo regulations, and although 
o ordinance was drawn up and a strenuous effort 
made to bring it to the attention of the aldermen, no 
of them would introduce it into the city council withe 
newspaper backing. We were able to agitate for 
again at the annual meeting of the National Ch 
s Labor Committee which was held in Chicago in 19c 
and which was of course reported in papers through 
the entire country. 1 his meeting also demonstrat 
that local measures can sometimes be urged m 















ACTIVITIES AND INVESTIGATIONS 279 

fectively when joined to the efforts of a national body, 
ldoubtedly the best discussions ever held upon the 
leration and status of the Illinois law, were those 
illicit took place then. The needs of the Illinois chil- 
■ en were regarded in connection with the children of 5 
e nation and advanced health measures for Illinois 
sire compared with those of other states. 

\ The investigations of Hull-House thus tend to be 
krged with those of larger organizations, from the in¬ 
stigation of the social value of saloons, made for the 10 
v,»mmittee of Fifty in 1896, to the one on infant mortal- 
tj' in relation to nationality, made for the American 
nademy of Science in 1909. This is also true of Hull- 
cpuse activities in regard to public movements, some 
ti which are inaugurated by the residents of other 1 s 
fSttlements, as the Chicago School of Civics and 
ifilanthropy, founded by the splendid efforts of Dr. 
i aham Taylor, 0 for many years head of Chicago Com- 
>ns. All of our recent investigations into housing 
ve been under the department of investigation of this 20 
100I with which several of the Hull-House residents 
si identified, quite as our active measures to secure 
liter housing conditions have been carried on with 
i City Homes Association and through the coopera- 
n of one of our residents, who several years ago was 25 
pointed a sanitary inspector on the city staff. 

‘Perhaps Dr. Taylor himself offers the best possible 
ample of the value of Settlement experience to public 





280 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


undertakings, in his manifold public activities of wf 

a c(| 

mission recently appointed by the governor of Illii j 
to report upon the best method of Industrial Insura 
5 or Employer’s Liability Acts, and his influence 
securing another to study into the subject of Industi 
Diseases. The actual factory investigation under ' 
latter is in charge of Dr. Hamilton, of Hull-Hoi 
whose long residence in an industrial neighborhood 
owell as her scientific attainment, give her pecu! 
qualifications for the undertaking. 

And so a Settlement is led along from the concrete: 
the abstract, as may easily be illustrated. Many ye 
ago a tailors’ union meeting at Hull-House asked < 
s cooperation in tagging the various parts of a man’s c< 
in such wise as to show the money paid to the peo 
who had made it; one tag for the cutting and anotl 
for the buttonholes, another for the finishing and so ■ 
the resulting total to be compared with the selling pi 
oof the coat itself. It quickly became evident that t 
had no way of computing how much of this larger b. 
ance was spent for salesmen, commercial travelers, r< 
and management, and the poor tagged coat was fina 
left hanging limply in a closet as if discouraged with 1 
s attempt. But the desire of the manual worker to kn 
the relation of his own labor to the whole is not oi 
legitimate but must form the basis of any intelligt 
action for his improvement. It was therefore with t 


one might instance his work at the moment upon 



ACTIVITIES AND INVESTIGATIONS 281 


pe of reform in the sewing trades that the Hull- 
>use residents testified before the Federal Industrial 
immission in 1900, and much later with genuine en- 
hsiasm joined with trades-unionists and other public- 
rited citizens in an industrial exhibit which made a 5 
’iphic presentation of the conditions and rewards of 
>or. The large casino building in which it was held 
s filled every day and evening for two weeks, showing 
w popular such information is, if it can be presented 
iphically. As an illustration of this same moving 1 
m the smaller to the larger, I might instance the 
arts of Miss McDowell 0 of the University of Chicago 
:tlement, and others, in urging upon Congress the 
:essity for a special investigation into the condition 
women and children in industry because we had dis- 1 
/ered the insuperable difficulties of smaller investi- 
ions, notably one undertaken for the Illinois Bureau 
Labor by Mrs. Van der Vaart of Neighborhood 
>use and by Miss Breckinridge of the University of 
icago. This investigation made clear that it was as 2 
possible to detach the girls working in the stockyards 
m their sisters in industry, as it was to urge special 
islation on their behalf. 

[n the earlier years of the American Settlements, the 
idents were sometimes impatient with the accepted 2 
thods of charitable administration and hoped, 
lough residence in an industrial neighborhood, to 
(cover more cooperative and advanced methods of 




282 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

dealing with the problems of poverty which are 
dependent upon industrial maladjustment. But dur; 
twenty years, the Settlements have seen the charita 
people, through their very knowledge of the poor, cc 
s stantly approach nearer to those methods forme 
designated as radical. I he residents, so far from holdi 
aloof from organized charity, find testimony, certair 
in the National Conferences, that out of the most p< 
sistent and intelligent efforts to alleviate poverty, v 
ioin all probability arise the most significant suggestio 
for eradicating poverty. In the hearing before a co 
gressional committee for the establishment of a Ch 
dren s Bureau, residents in American Settlemen 
joined their fellow philanthropists in urging the ne 
15 of this indispensable instrument for collecting and d 
seminating information which would make possib 
concerted intelligent action on behalf of children. 

Mr. Howells has said that we are all so besotted wi 
our novel reading that we have lost the power of seeir 
20 certain aspects of life with any sense of reality becau 
we aie continually looking for the possible romanc 
The description might apply to the earlier years of tl 
American settlement, but certainly the later years ai 
filled with discoveries in actual life as romantic as the 
2 s are unexpected. If I may illustrate one of these romai 
tic discoveries from my own experience, I would cite tb 
indications of an internationalism as sturdy and viri 
as it is unprecedented which I have seen in our co 








ACTIVITIES AND INVESTIGATIONS 283 

apolitan neighborhood: when a South Italian Catho- 
: is forced by the very exigencies of the situation to 
take friends with an Austrian Jew representing an¬ 
il er nationality and another religion, both of which 
t into all his most cherished prejudices, he finds it 5 
irder to utilize them a second time and gradually loses 
em. He thus modifies his provincialism for if an old 
emy working by his side has turned into a friend, al- 
ost anything may happen. When, therefore, I he¬ 
me identified with the peace movement both in its 10 
ternational and National Conventions, I hoped that 
is internationalism engendered in the immigrant 
larters of American cities might be recognized as an 
ective instrument in the cause of peace. I first set it 
rth with some misgiving before the Convention held 1 s 
Boston in 1904 and it is always a pleasure to recall 
e hearty assent given to it by Professor Williamjames. 

I have always objected to the phrase “sociological 
boratory” applied to us, because Settlements should 
: something much more human and spontaneous than 20 
; ch a phrase connotes, and yet it is inevitable that the 
sidents should know their own neighborhoods more 
oroughly than any other, and that their experiences 
ere should affect their convictions, 
j, Years ago I was much entertained by a story told 25 
; the Chicago Woman’s Club by one of its ablest 
Members in the discussion following a paper of mine on 
|rhe Outgrowths of Toynbee Hall.” She said that 




284 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


5 


o 


when she was a little girl playing in her mother’s gard 
she one day discovered a small toad who seemed to 
very forlorn and lonely, although as she did not in 
least know how to comfort him, she reluctantly left \ 
to his fate; later in the day, quite at the other end 
the garden, she found a large toad, also apparently wi 
out family and friends. With a heart full of tenl 
sympathy, she took a stick and by exercising infin 
patience and some skill, she finally pushed the lit 
toad through the entire length of the garden into t 
company of the big toad, when, to her inexpressi 
horror and surprise, the big toad opened his mouth a 


l 

V 

l< 

T 

>i 

■i 

I 


swallowed the little one. The moral of the tale was cle 
applied to people who lived tc where they did r 
5 naturally belong, although I protested that was ( 
actly what we wanted — to be swallowed and digest 
to disappear into the bulk of the people. 

Twenty years later I am willing to testify that sorr 
thing of the sort does take place after years of identific 
o tion with an industrial community. 












CHAPTER XIV 
Civic Cooperation 

One of the first lessons we learned at Hull-House was 
tat private beneficence is totally inadequate to deal 
th the vast numbers of the city’s disinherited. We 
-so quickly came to realize that there are certain types 
j wretchedness from which every private philanthropy 5 
1 rinks and which are cared for only in those wards of 
e county hospital provided for the wrecks of vicious 
ring or in the city’s isolation hospital for smallpox 
ttients. 

I have heard a broken-hearted mother exclaim when 1 
:r erring daughter came home at last, too broken and 
seased to be taken into the family she had disgraced, 
There is no place for her but the top floor of the 
ounty Hospital; they will have to take her there,” and 
is only after every possible expedient had been tried 1 
suggested. This aspect of governmental responsi- 
lity was unforgetably borne in upon me during the 
nallpox epidemic following the World’s Fair, when 
le of the residents, Mrs. Kelley, as State factory In¬ 
jector, was much concerned in discovering and destroy- 2 
g clothing which was being finished in houses con- 
ining unreported cases of smallpox. The deputy most 

285 



I o 


I 5 


2 O 


2 5 


286 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

successful in locating such cases lived at Hull-Ho 
during the epidemic because he did not wish to exp 
his own family. Another resident, Miss Lathrop, a 
membei of the State Board of Charities, went bs 
and forth to the crowded pest house which had bt 
hastily constructed on a stretch of prairie west of t 
city. As Hull-House was already so exposed, it seem 
best for the special smallpox inspectors from the Boa 
of Health to take their meals and change their clothi 
there before they went to their respective homes. J 
of these officials had accepted without question and 
implicit in public office, the obligation to carry on t 
dangerous and difficult undertakings for w 7 hich priva 
philanthropy is unfitted, as if the commonalty of cor 
passion represented by the State was more comprehen 
mg than that of any individual group. 

It was as early as our second winter on Halst< 
Stieet that one of the Hull-House residents received i 
appointment from the Cook County agent as a count 
visitor. She reported at the agency each morning, an 
all the cases within a radius of ten blocks from Hul 
House were given to her for investigation. This ga\ 
her a legitimate opportunity for knowing the poore; 
people in the neighborhood and also for understandin 
the county method of outdoor relief. The commissions 
were at first dubious of the value of such a visitor ar 
predicted that a woman would be a perfect “co 
chute” for giving away county supplies, but the 










CIVIC COOPERATION 287 

adually came to depend upon her suggestion and 

!| 

Ivice. 

In 1893 this same resident, Miss Julia C. Lathrop, 0 
ras appointed by the governor a member of the Illinois 
: ate Board of Charities. She served in this capacity 
r two consecutive terms and was later reappointed to 
third term. Perhaps her most valuable contribution 
wards the enlargement and reorganization of the 
laritable institutions of the State came through her 
timate knowledge of the beneficiaries, and her ex¬ 
igence demonstrated that it is only through long 
sidence among the poor that an official could have 
arned to view public institutions as she did, from the 
andpoint of the inmates rather than from that of the 
anagers. Since that early day, residents of Hull- 
louse have spent much time in working for the civil 
rrvice methods of appointment for employees in the 
runty and state institutions; for the establishment of 
tate colonies for the care of epileptics; and for a dozen 
(her enterprises which occupy that borderland between 
uaritable effort and legislation. In this borderland we 
c operate in many civic enterprises for I think we may 
cairn that Hull-House has always held its activities 
[rhtly, ready to hand them over to whosoever would 
(rry them on properly. 

Miss Starr had early made a collection of framed 
potographs, largely of the paintings studied in her art 
ass, which became the basis of a loan collection first 





288 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

used by the Hull-House students and later extended 
the public schools. It may be fair to suggest that t 
effort was the nucleus of the Public School Art Soci< 
which was later formed in the city and of which M 
5 Starr was the first president. 

In our first two summers we had maintained th 
baths in the basement of our own house for the use 
the neighborhood and they afforded some expener.’ 
and argument for the erection of the first public bat 
xo house in Chicago, which was built on a neighbori 
street and opened under the city Board of Health. T 
lot upon which it was erected belonged to a friend j 
Hull-House who offered it to the city without rent, aij 
this enabled the city to erect the first public bath froj 
15 the small appropriation of ten thousand dollars. Gre 
fear was expressed by the public authorities that tl 
baths would not be used and the old story of the bat 
tubs in model tenements which had been turned in 
coal bins was often quoted to us. We were supplie 
20 however, with the incontrovertible argument that 
our adjacent third square mile there were in 1892 bi 
three bathtubs and that this fact was much complaine 
of by many of the tenement-house dwellers. Our cor 
tention was justified by the immediate and overflowin 
2 5 use of the public baths, as we had before been sustaine 
in the contention that an immigrant population woul 
respond to opportunities for reading when the Publi 
Library Board had established a branch reading roor 
at Hull-House. 









CIVIC COOPERATION 


289 

We also quickly discovered that nothing brought us 
I absolutely into comradeship with our neighbors as 
utual and sustained effort such as the paving of a 
reet, the closing of a gambling house, or the restora- 
3n of a veteran police sergeant. 

, Several of these earlier attempts at civic cooperation 
[?re undertaken in connection with the Hull-House 
en’s Club which had been organized in the spring of 
93, had been incorporated under a state charter of 
; own and had occupied a club room in the gymnasium 
hiding. This club obtained an early success in one of 
e political struggles in the ward and thus fastened 
>on itself a specious reputation for political power. It 
is at last so torn by the dissensions of two political 
ctions which attempted to capture it that, although 
is still an existing organization, it has never regained 
e prestige of its first five years. Its early political 
ccess came in a campaign Hull-House had instigated 
ainst a powerful alderman who has held office for 
are than twenty years in the nineteenth ward, and 
10, although notoriously corrupt, is still firmly in- 
snched among his constituents. 

Hull-House has had to do with three campaigns 

I ganized against him. In the first one he was apparent- 
only amused at our “Sunday School” effort and did 
tie to oppose the election to the aldermanic office of a 
maber of the Hull-House Men’s Club who thus be- 
me his colleague in the city council. When Hull- 
however, made an effort in the following spring 





290 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

against the reelection of the alderman himself, we 
countered the most determined and skillful opposition 
In these campaigns we doubtless depended too mu 
upon the idealistic appeal, for we did not yet comprehe 
5 the element of reality always brought into the politic 
struggle in such a neighborhood where politics deal 
directly with getting a job and earning a living. 

We soon discovered that approximately one out 
every five voters in the nineteenth ward at that tir 
i o held a job dependent upon the good will of the aide 
man. There were no civil service rules to interfere ai 
the unskilled voter swept the street and dug the sewe, 
as secuie in his position as the more sophisticated vot 
who tended a bridge or occupied an office chairin the Cii 
15 Hall. The alderman was even more fortunate in findir 
places with the franchise-seeking corporations; it toe 
us some time to understand why so large a proportic 
of our neighbors were street-car employees and wh 
we had such a large club composed solely of telephor 
20girls. Our powerful alderman had various methods < 
intrenching himself. Many people were indebted t 
him for his kindly services in the police station and th, 
justice courts, for in those days Irish constituents easil 
broke the peace, and before the establishment of th 
2 s Juvenile Court, boys were arrested for very trivi; 
offenses; added to these were hundreds of constituent 
indebted to him for personal kindness, from the peddle 
who received a free license to the business man wh 



CIVIC COOPERATION 


291 


d a railroad pass to New York. Our third campaign 
ainst him, when we succeeded in making a serious 
pression upon his majority, evoked from his hench- 
;n the same sort of hostility which a striker so in- 
itably feels against the man who would take his job, 
en sharpened by the sense that the movement for 
orm came from an alien source. 

Another result of the campaign was an expectation 
the part of our new political friends that Hull-House 
>uld perform like offices for them, and there resulted 
dless confusion and misunderstanding because in 
my cases we could not even attempt to do what the 
lerman constantly did with a right good will. When 
protected a law breaker from the legal consequences 
3 his act, his kindness appeared, not only to himself 
:t to all beholders, like the deed of a powerful and 
ndly statesman. When Hull-House on the other hand 

1 listed that a law must be enforced, it could but ap- 
ar like the persecution of the offender. We were 
rtainly not anxious for consistency nor for individual 
hievement, but in a desire to foster a higher political 
>rality and not to lower our standards, we constantly 
ished with the existing political code. We also un- 

I ttingly stumbled upon a powerful combination of 
uch our alderman was the political head, with its 
jinking, its ecclesiastical, and its journalistic represent- 
1 ves, and as we followed up the clew and naively told 
i we discovered, we of course laid the foundations for 







292 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


opposition which has manifested itself in many fo 
the most striking expression of it was an attack i 
Hull-House lasting through weeks and months 1 
Chicago daily newspaper which has since ce 
5 publication. 

During the third campaign I received many am 
mous letters those from the men often obscene, tl 
from the women revealing that curious connection 
tween prostitution and the lowest type of politics w 
i o every city tries in vain to hide. I had offers from 
men in the city prison to vote properly if relea 
various communications from lodging-house keeper 
to the prices of the vote they were ready to deli 1 
everywhere appeared that animosity which is evo 
i s only when a man feels that his means of livelihoo 
threatened. 


n 

c 

e 

3 

>s 

•f 

Ci 

1 

d 

a: 

d 


z 


As I look back, I am reminded of the state of 
of Kipling’s newspaper men who witnessed a vole*, 
eruption at sea, in which unbelievable deep-sea creati 
owere expelled to the surface, among them an enorm 
white serpent, blind and smelling of musk, whose de 
thioes thrashed the sea into a fury. Whth professio 
instinct unimpaired, the journalists carefully obser 
the uncanny creature never designed for the eyes 
s men; but a few days later, when they found themsel 
in a comfortable second-class carriage, traveling fr 
Southampton to London between trim hedgerows 
smug English villages, they concluded that the 











CIVIC COOPERATION 293 

oHence was too sensational to be pat before the British 
iblic, and it became improbable even to themselves. 
Many subsequent years of living in kindly neighbor- 
end fashion with the people of the nineteenth ward 
p produced upon my memory the soothing effect of 5 
noli second-class railroad carriage and many of these 
tli iticaUexperiences have not only become remote but 
neadv seem improbable. On the other hand, these 
vjnpaigns were not without their rewards; one of them 
ujs a quickened friendship both with the more sub- 10 
agntial citizens in the ward and with a group of fine 
ding voters whose devotion to Hull-House has never 
liJce failed; another was a sense of identification with 
oiplic-spirited men throughout the city who con- 
oouted money and time to what they considered a 15 
lant effort against political corruption. I remember 
dyoung professor from the University of Chicago 
:a|o with his wife came to live at Hull-House, traveling 
tuff long distance every day throughout the autumn 
Jl winter that he might qualify as a nineteenth-ward 20 
efer in the spring campaign. He served as a watcher 
oj.he polls and it was but a poor reward for his devotion 
It he was literally set upon and beaten up, for in those 
s >d old days such things frequently occurred. Many 

1 other case of devotion to our standard, so recklessly 25 
n »ed, might be cited but perhaps more valuable than 

2 t of these was the sense of identification we obtained 
f h the rest of Chicago. 



294 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

So far as a Settlement can discern and bring to lc 
consciousness neighborhood needs which are comn 
needs, and can give vigorous help to the munici 
measures through which such needs shall be met 
5 fulfills its most valuable function. To illustrate fi 
our first effort to improve the street paving in 
vicinity, we found that when we had secured the c 
sent of the majority of the property owners on a gr 
street for a new paving, the alderman checked the 
otire plan through his kindly service to one man who 1 
appealed to him to keep the assessments down. 1 
street long remained a shocking mass of wet, dilapida i 
cedar blocks, where children were sometimes mired f 
they floated a surviving block in the water wh j- 
s speedily filled the holes whence other blocks had b<* 
extracted for fuel. And yet when we were able 
demonstrate that the street paving had thus been 
duced into cedar pulp by the heavily loaded wagons j 
an adjacent factory, that the expense of its repav 
o should be borne from a general fund and not by the p 
property owners, we found that we could all unite 
advocating reform in the method of repaving assc 
ments, and the alderman himself was obliged to co 
into such a popular movement. The Nineteenth W; 

5 Improvement Association which met at Hull-Hoi 
during two winters, was the first body of citizens a 
to make a real impression upon the local paving sit' 
tion. They secured an expert to watch the paving a: 



CIVIC COOPERATION 2 9S 

it down to be sure that their half of the paving money 
well expended. In the belief that property values 
ild be thus enhanced, the common aim brought to- 
ter the more prosperous people of the vicinity, some- 
it as the Hull-House Cooperative Coal Association 5 
light together the poorer ones, 
remember that during the second campaign against 
alderman, Governor Pingree 0 of Michigan came to 
t at Hull-House. He said that the stronghold of 
i a man was not the place in which to start municipal i o 
meration; that good aldermen should be elected 
n the promising wards first, until a majority of 
est men in the city council should make politics un¬ 
itable for corrupt men. We replied that it was 
cult to divide Chicago into good and bad wards, but i 5 
: a new organization called the Municipal Voters’ 
gue was attempting to give to the well-meaning 
;r in every ward throughout the city, accurate in¬ 
nation concerning the candidates and their relation, 

: and present, to vital issues. One of our trustees, 20 
• was most active in inaugurating this League, al- 
s said that his nineteenth-ward experience had con- 

| :ed him of the unity of city politics, and that he 
itantly used our campaign as a challenge to the 
roused citizens living in wards less conspicuously 25 
upt. 

ertainly the need for civic cooperation was obvious 
lany directions, and in none more strikingly than in 




296 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


that organized effort which must be carried on i 
ceasingly if young people are to be protected from 




darker and coarser dangers of the city. The coopera 
between Hull-House and the Juvenile Protect 
s Association came about gradually, and it seems nov 
most inevitably. From our earliest days we saw m 
boys constantly arrested, and I had a number of ri 
enlightening experiences in the police station with 
Irish lad whose mother upon her deathbed had beg 
10 me to look after him.” We were distressed by 
gangs of very little boys who would sally forth with 
enterprising leader in search of old brass and ir 
sometimes breaking into empty houses for the sake 
the faucets or lead pipe which they would sell for a g< 

1 s price to a junk dealer. With the money thus obtaii 

they would buy cigarettes and beer or even can 
which could be conspicuously consumed in the a 
where they might enjoy the excitement of being s 
and suspected by the “coppers.” From the third y 
20 of Hull-House, one of the residents held a semi-ofli 
position in the nearest police station; at least the s 
geant agreed to give her provisional charge of ev 
boy and girl under arrest for a trivial offense. 

Mrs. Stevens, who performed this work for seve 

2 5 years, became the first probation officer of the Juver 

Couit when it w~as established in Cook County in 18 
She was the sole probation officer at first, but at 
time of her death, which occurred at Hull-House 










CIVIC COOPERATION 2 97 

io, she was the senior officer of a corps of six. Her 
: re experience had fitted her to deal wisely with way- 
id chilchen. She had gone into a New England cotton 
at the age o! thirteen, where she had promptly lost 
index finger of her right hand through “careless- 
> she was told, and no one then seemed to under- 
id that freedom from care was the prerogative of 
dhood. Later she became a typesetter and was one 
he first women in America to become a member of 
typographical union, retaining her “card” through 
he later years of editorial work. As the Juvenile 
rt developed, the committee of public-spirited 
ens who first supplied only Mrs. Stevens’ salary, 

• maintained a corps of twenty-two such officers; 
iral of these were Hull-House residents who brought 
fie house for many years a sad little procession of 
ilren struggling against all sorts of handicaps. When 
Hation was secured which placed the probation 
iers upon the pay roll of the county, it was a chai¬ 
se to the efficiency of the civil service method of ap- 
ltrnent to obtain by examination men and women 
td fpr this delicate human task. As one of five people 
d by the civil service commission to conduct this 
S examination for probation officers, I became con- 
Ed that we were but at the beginning of the non- 
lical method of selecting public servants, but even 
i and unbending as the examination may be, it is 
iour hope of political salvation. 




298 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

In 1907 the Juvenile Court was housed in a m 
court building of its own, containing a detention h 
and equipped with a competent staff. The commi 
of citizens largely responsible for this result therei 
5 turned their attention to the conditions which 
records of the court indicated had led to the alarn 
amount of juvenile delinquency and crime. They off 
ized the Juvenile Protective Association, whose twe 
two officers meet weekly at Hull-House with t 
10 executive committee to report what they have fo 
and to discuss city conditions affecting the live 
children and young people. 

The association discovers that there are cer 
temptations into which children so habitually fall 1 

1 s it is evident that the average child cannot withst 

them. An overwhelming mass of data is accumul: ~ 
showing the need of enforcing existing legislation - 
of securing new legislation, but it also indicate, 
hundred other directions in which the young peopleT 

2 o so gayly walk our streets, often to their own destruct 

need safeguarding and protection. 

The effort of the association to treat the youth of 
city with consideration and understanding has ral. 
the most unexpected forces to its standard. Quite - 
2 5 the basic needs of life are supplied solely by those y, 
make money out of the business, so the modern <jj 
has assumed that the craving for pleasure must 
ministered to only by the sordid. This assumpf . 




CIVIC COOPERATION 299 

r ever, in a large measure broke down as soon as the 
emle Protective Association courageously put it to 
test. After persistent prosecutions, but also after 
by friendly interviews, the Druggists’ Association 
[f prosecutes those of its members who sell indecent 
: cards; the Saloon Keepers’ Protective Association 
only declines to protect members who sell liquor 
minors, but now takes drastic action to prevent such 
s; the Retail Grocers’ Association forbids the selling 
obacco to minors; the Association of Department 
e Managers not only increased the vigilance in 
r waiting rooms by supplying more matrons, but as 
>dy they have become regular contributors to the 
ciation; the special watchmen in all the railroad 
Is agree not to arrest trespassing boys but to report 
ri to the association; the firms manufacturing mov- 
bicture films not only submit their films to a volun- 
j inspection committee, but ask for suggestions in 
!rd to new matter; and the Five-Cent Theaters ar- 
;e for “stunts” which shall deal with the subject of 
ic health and morals when the lecturers provided 
entertaining as well as instructive, 
is not difficult to arouse the impulse of protection 
he young, which would doubtless dictate the daily 
of many a bartender and pool-room keeper if they 
I only indulge it without thereby giving their rivals 
dvantage. When this difficulty is removed by an 
-handed enforcement of the law, that simple kind- 







3 oo TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

liness which the innocent always evoke goes from on 
another like a slowly spreading flame of good t 
D oubtless the most rewarding experience in any s) 
undertaking as that of the Juvenile Protective Assoj 
stion, is the warm and intelligent cooperation con 
from unexpected sources — official and commercia 
well as philanthropic. Upon the suggestion of 
association, social centers have been opened in varij 
parts of the city, disused buildings turned into rec 
otion rooms, vacant lots made into gardens, hit 
parties organized for country excursions, batf 
beaches established on the lake front, and public sch< 
opened for social purposes. Through the efforts 
public-spirited citizens a medical clinic and a Psyc 
spathic Institute have become associated with j 
Juvenile Court of Chicago, in addition to which an 
haustive study of court-records has just been complei 
To this carefully collected data concerning the j 
normal child, the Juvenile Protective Association ho‘ 
oin time to add knowledge of the normal child who li 
under the most adverse city conditions. 

It was not without hope that I might be able 
forward in the public school system the solution of sci 
of these problems of delinquency so dependent up 
5 truancy and ill-adapted education, that I became 
member of the Chicago Board of Education in Jt 
1905. It is impossible to write of the situation as itl 
came dramatized in half a dozen strong personalit 





CIVIC COOPERATION 3 oi 

t the entire experience was so illuminating as to the 
■ficulties and limitations of democratic government 
at it would be unfair in a chapter on Civic Coopera- 
>n not to attempt an outline. 

Even the briefest statement, however, necessitates 5 
eview of the preceding few years. For a decade the 
licago, school teachers, or rather a majority of them 
o were organized into the Teachers’ Federation, had 
tn engaged in a conflict with the Board of Education 
th for more adequate salaries and for more self- 10 
ection in the conduct of the schools. In pursuance 
the first object, they had attacked the tax dodger 
ng the entire line of his defense, from the curbstone 
ithe Supreme Court. 1 hey began with an intricate 
estigation which uncovered the fact that in 1899, *5 
5,000,000 of value of public utility corporations paid 
hing in taxes. The Teachers’ Federation brought a 
t which was prosecuted through the Supreme Court 
Illinois and resulted in an order entered against the 
ite Board of Equalization, demanding that it tax the 20 
porations mentioned in the bill. In spite of the fact 
it the defendant companies sought federal aid and 
lained an order which restrained the payment of a 
ition of the tax, each year since 1900, the Chicago 
ird of Education has benefited to the extent of 2 5 
re than a quarter of a million dollars. Although this 
lit had been attained through the unaided efforts of 
teachers, to their surprise and indignation their 








302 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

salaries were not increased. The Teachers’ Federatf 
therefore, brought a suit against the Board of Educat 
for the advance which had been promised them th 
years earlier but never paid. The decision of the lo\ 
s court was in their favor but the Board of Educat: 
appealed the case, and this was the situation when 1 
seven new members appointed by Mayor Dunne 0- 
1905 took their seats. The conservative public suspe 
ed that these new members were merely representatr 
oof the Teachers’ Federation. This opinion was found 
upon the fact that Judge Dunne had rendered a fav 
able decision in the teachers’ suit and that the teach' 
had been very active in the campaign which had 
suited in his election as mayor of the city. It seem 
s obvious that the teachers had entered into politics i 
the sake of securing their own representatives on t; 
Board of Education. These suspicions were, of cour ; 
only confirmed when the new board voted to withdr; 
the suit of their predecessors from the Appellate Com 
o and to act upon the decision of the lower court. T 
teachers, on the other hand, defended their long eff< 
in the courts, the State Board of Equalization, and t 
Legislature, against the charge of “dragging the schot 
into politics,” and declared that the exposure of t 
s indifference and cupidity of the politicians was a we 
deserved rebuke, and that it was the politicians wl 
had brought the schools to the verge of financial rui 
they further insisted that the levy and collection 


CIVIC COOPERATION 


303 


es, tenure of office, and pensions to civil servants in 
icago were all entangled with the traction situation, 
ich in their minds at least had come to he an example 
;he struggle between the democratic and plutocratic 
ninistration of city affairs. The new appointees to 
School Board represented no concerted policy of 
T kind, but were for the most part adherents to the 
v education. The teachers, confident that their 
se was identical with the principles advocated by 
h educators as Colonel Parker, 0 were therefore sure 
t the plans of the “new education” members would 
necessity coincide with the plans of the Teachers’ 
(eration. In one sense the situation was an epitome 
Mayor Dunne’s entire administration, which was 
nded upon the belief that if those citizens represent- 
social ideals and reform principles were but ap- 
nted to office, public welfare must be established. 
)uring my tenure of office I many times talked to 
officers of the Teachers’ Federation, but I was 
lorn able to follow their suggestions and, although I 
ily cooperated in their plans for a better pension 
Item and other matters, only once did I try to in- 
tnce the policy of the Federation. When the with- 
il salaries were finally paid to the representatives of 
1 Federation who had brought suit and were divided 
Dng the members who had suffered both financially 
professionally during this long legal struggle, I was 
lit anxious that the division should voluntarily be 






3o 4 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


extended to all of the teachers who had experience 
loss of salary although they were not members of 
Federation. It seemed to me a striking opportunity 
refute the charge that the Federation was self-seel 
5 and to put the whole long effort in thq v minds 
the public, exactly where it belonged, as one of 
voted public service. But it was doubtless much ea 
for me to urge this altruistic policy than it was 
those who had borne the heat and burden of the d 
oto act upon it. 

The second object of the Teachers’ Federation 2 
entailed much stress and storm. At the time of 
financial stringency, and largely as a result of it, 
Board had made the first substantial advance ir 
5 teacher’s salary dependent upon a so-called promotio 
examination, half of which was upon academic subje 
entailing a long and severe preparation. The teach 
resented this upon two lines of argument: first, tl 
the scheme was unprofessional in that the teacher v 
o advanced on her capacity as a student rather than 
her professional ability; and, second, that it added 
intolerable and unnecessary burden to her already ov 
full day. The administration, on the other hand, cc 
tended with much justice that there was a consta 
s danger in a great public school system that teach< 
lose pliancy and the open mind, and that many of tht 
had obviously grown mechanical and indifferent. T 
conservative public approved the promotional examir 


|; 

l 















CIVIC COOPERATION 


305 

as as the symbol of an advancing educational stand- 
1, and their sympathy with the superintendent was 
reased because they continually resented the affilia- 
n of the Teachers’ Federation with the Chicago 
deration of Labor which had taken place several 
irs before the election of Mayor Dunne on his 
ction .platform. 

This much talked of affiliation between the teachers 
1 the trades-unionists had been, at least in the first 

I tance, but one more tactic in the long struggle against 
: tax-dodging corporations. The Teachers’ Federa- 
in had won in their first skirmish against that public 
r ifference which is generated in the accumulation of 
valth and which has for its nucleus successful com- 
rrcial men. When they found themselves in need of 
ither legislation to keep the offending corporations 
1 ler control, they naturally turned for political in- 
I mce and votes to the organization representing 
vrkingmen. The affiliation had none of the sinister 
raning so often attached to it. The Teachers’ Federa- 
i a never obtained a charter from the American Federa- 
j|i of Labor and its main interest always centered in 
1 legislative committee. 

* Lid yet this statement of the difference between the 
pjority of the grade school teachers and the Chicago 
Ijtool Board is totally inadequate, for the difficulties 
lie stubborn and lay far back in the long effort of 
>lic school administration in America to free itself 


I o 


I 5 


2 o 


2 5 







3 o6 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

from the rule and exploitation of politics. In eve 
city for many years the politician had secured positio 
for his friends as teachers and janitors; he had receiv 
a rake-off in the contract for every new building or cc 
5 supply or adoption of schoolbooks. In the long strugg 
against this political corruption, the one remedy co 1 
tinually advocated was the transfer of authority in 
educational matters from the Board to the supe 1 
intendent. The one cure for “pull” and corrupt^ 
owas the authority of the “expert.” The rules ai 
records of the Chicago Board of Education are full 
relics of this long struggle honestly waged by hone : 
men, who unfortunately became content with t! 
ideals of an “efficient business administration.” The 
s business men established an able superintendent with 
large salary, with his tenure of office secured by sta 
law so that he would not be disturbed by the wrath 1 
the balked politician. 1 hey instituted impersonal e 
aminations for the teachers both as to entrance in 
o the system and promotion, and they proceeded “ 
hold the superintendent responsible” for smoot 
running schools. All this however dangerously appro>* 
mated the commercialistic ideal of high salaries on 
for the management with the final test of a small e 
s pense account and a large output. 

In this long struggle for a quarter of a century to fn 
the public schools from political interference, in Chica^ 
at least, the high wall of defense erected around tl 



CIVIC COOPERATION 


307 


100I system in order “to keep the rascals out,” un- 
rtunately so restricted the teachers inside the system 
it they had no space in which to move about freely 
d the more adventurous of them fairly panted for 
ht and air. Any attempt to lower the wall for the 
ce of the teachers within was regarded as giving an 
fportunity to the politicians without, and they were 
en openly accused, with a show of truth, of being in 
gue with each other. Whenever the Dunne members 
the Board attempted to secure more liberty for the 
iichers, we were warned by tales of former difficulties 
;:h the politicians, and it seemed impossible that the 
niggle, so long the focus of attention, should recede 
to the dullness of the achieved and allow the energy 
the Board to be free for new effort. 

The whole situation between the superintendent, sup- 
rted by a majority of the Board, and the Teachers’ 
deration had become an epitome of the struggle be- 
|een efficiency and democracy; on one side a well- 
entioned expression of the bureaucracy necessary in 
arge system but which under pressure had become 
necessarily self-assertive, and on the other side a 
rly militant demand for self-government made in 
; name of freedom. Both sides inevitably exagger- 
d the difficulties of the situation and both felt that 
:y were standing by important principles. 

! certainly played a most inglorious part in this un- 
:essary conflict; I was chairman of the School Man- 









3 o8 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

agement Committee during one year when a majoo 
of the members seemed to me exasperatingly c< 
servative, and during another year when they w 
frustratingly radical, and I was of course highly i 
s satisfactory to both. Certainly a plan to retain the i 
doubted benefit of required study for teachers in si 
wise as to lessen its burden, and various schemes i 
vised to shift the emphasis from scholarship to p 
fessional work, were most impatiently repudiated 
othe Teachers’ Federation, and when one badly mutilat 
plan finally passed the Board, it was most reluctam 
administered by tbe superintendent. 

I at least became convinced that partisans wot 
never tolerate the use of stepping-stones. They < 

5 much too impatient to look on while their belov 
scheme is unstably balanced, and they would rather s 
it tumble into the stream at once than to have 
brought to dry land in any such half-hearted fashicj 
Before my School Board experience, I thought that 1 
ohad taught me at least one hard-earned lesson, thj 
existing arrangements and the hoped for improvemer, 
must be mediated and reconciled to each other, th, 
the new must be dovetailed into the old as it were, if 
were to endure; but on the School Board I discern 
5 that all such efforts were looked upon as compromisi: 
and unworthy, by both partisans. In the general d 
order and public excitement resulting from the illeg 
dismissal of a majority of the “Dunne” board ar 







CIVIC COOPERATION 


309 


sir reinstatement by a court decision, I found myself 
longing to neither party. During the months follow- 
r the upheaval and the loss of my most vigorous 
{[leagues, under the regime of men representing the 
hding Commercial Club of the city who honestly 5 
flieved that they were rescuing the schools from a 
Ihdition of chaos, I saw one beloved measure after 
iother withdrawn. Although the new president scru- 
:lously gave me the floor in the defense of each, it was 
> possible to consider them upon their merits in the 10 
*rid light which at the moment enveloped all the 
:ins of the “uplifters.” Thus the building of smaller 

i ioolrooms, such as in New York mechanically avoid 
ercrowding; the extension of the truant rooms so suc- 
cssfully inaugurated, the multiplication of school play- 15 
Sounds and many another cherished plan was thrown 
:t or at least indefinitely postponed. 

The final discrediting of Mayor Dunne’s appointees 
t the School Board affords a very interesting study in 
Hal psychology; the newspapers had so constantly 20 
elected and intensified the ideals of a business Board, 
td had so persistently ridiculed various administration 
ans for the municipal ownership of street railways, 
at from the beginning any attempt the new Board 
ade to discuss educational matters, only excited their 2 5 
rision and contempt. Some of these discussions were 
lagthy and disorderly and deserved the discipline of 
rlicule, but others which were well conducted and in 




3io TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

which educational problems were seriously set fortl i 
men of authority, were ridiculed quite as sharply 
recall the surprise and indignation of a University ] o 
fessor who had consented to speak at a meeting r 
5 ranged in the Board rooms, when next morning his r i 
partisan and careful disquisition had been twisted i; 
the most arrant uplift nonsense and so connected v 
a fake newspaper report of a trial marriage address : 
livered, not by himself, but by a colleague, that a le 
;oing clergyman of the city, having read the newspa 
account, felt impelled to preach a sermon, calling uj 
all decent people to rally against the doctrines wh 
were being taught to the children by an immoral Sch 
Board. As the bewildered professor had lectured 
s response to my invitation, I endeavored to find i 
animus of the complication, but neither from editor 
chief nor from the reporter could I discover anythi 
more sinister than that the public expected a go 
story out of these School Board “talk fests,” and tl 
o any man who even momentarily allied himself with 
radical administration, must expect to be ridiculed 
those papers which considered the traction policy 
the administration both foolish and dangerous. 

As I myself was treated with uniform courtesy It 
s the leading papers, I may perhaps here record my d 
couragement over this complicated difficulty of op< 
discussion, for democratic government is founded up< 
the assumption that differing policies shall be freely di 




CIVIC COOPERATION 


3 ii 

sed and that each party shall have an opportunity 
at least a partisan presentation of its contentions, 
fis attitude of the newspapers was doubtless intensi- 
1 because the Dunne School Board had instituted a 

I /suit challenging the validity of the lease for the 5 
100I ground occupied by a newspaper building. This 
t has ,since been decided in favor of the newspaper, 

1 it may be that in their resentment they felt justified 
loing everything possible to minimize the prosecuting 
100I Board. I am, however, inclined to think that 10 
1 newspapers but reflected an opinion honestly held 
many people, and that their constant and partisan 
mentation of this opinion clearly demonstrates one 
the greatest difficulties of governmental administra- 
n in a city grown too large for verbal discussions of 15 
blic affairs. 

It is difficult to close this chapter without a reference 
the efforts made in Chicago to secure the municipal 
mchise for women. During two long periods of 
itation for a new city charter, a representative body 20 
: women appealed to the public, to the charter con¬ 
ation, and to the Illinois legislature for this very 
isonable provision. During the campaign when I 
ted as chairman of the federation of a hundred 
omen’s organizations, nothing impressed me so 25 
rcibly as the fact that the response came from bodies 
women representing the most varied traditions. We 
'rejoined by a church society of hundreds of Lutheran 






312 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

women, because Scandinavian women had exercis 
the municipal franchise since the seventeenth centu 
and had found American cities strangely conservativ 
by organizations of working women, who had keer 
5 felt the need of the municipal franchise in order 
secure for their workshops the most rudimenta 
sanitation and the consideration which the vote ala 
obtains for workingmen; by federations of mothei 
meetings, who were interested in clean milk and t! 
i o extension of kindergartens; by property-owning wome 
who had been powerless to protest against unjust tax 
tion; by organizations of professional women, of un 
versity students, and of collegiate alumnae; and b 
women s clubs interested in municipal reforms. Thei 
i s was a complete absence of the traditional women 
rights clamor, but much impressive testimony froi 
busy and useful women that they had reached tb 
place where they needed the franchise in order to carr 
on their own affairs. A striking witness as to the nee 
20 of the ballot, even for the women who are restricted t 
the most primitive and traditional activities, occurre 
when some Russian women waited upon me to as 
whether under the new charter, they could vote fc 
covered markets and so get rid of the shocking Chicag 
2sgrime upon all their food; and when some neighborin 
Italian women sent me word that they would certain! 
vote for public washhouses if they ever had the chanc 
to vote at all It was all so human, so spontaneous, an< 


CIVIC COOPERATION 313 

direct that it really seemed as if the time must be 
e for political expression of that public concern on the 
ft of women which has so long been forced to seek 
lirection. None of these busy women wished to take 
r place of men nor to influence them in the direction 
men’s affairs, but they did seek an opportunity to 
iperate directly in civic life through the use of the 
lot in regard to their own affairs. 

\ Municipal Museum which was established in the 
icago public library building several years ago, 
?ely through the activity of a group of women who 
I served as jurors in the departments of social 
jinomy, of education, and of sanitation in the World’s 
ir at St. Louis, 0 showed nothing more clearly than 
it it is impossible to divide any of these departments 
m the political life of the modern city which is con- 
ntly forced to enlarge the boundary of its activity. 






CHAPTER XV 
The Value of Social Clubs 


,1 


From the early days at Hull-House, social clubs a 
posed of English speaking American born young pec 
grew apace. So eager were they for social life that \ 


mistakes in management could drive them away 


I o 


I 5 


2 O 


remember one enthusiastic leader who read aloud t 
club a translation of “Antigone,” 0 which she 1 
selected because she believed that the great theme} 
the Greek poets were best suited to young people, 
came into the club room one evening in time to hear 
president call the restive members to order with 
statement, “You might just as well keep quiet for 
is bound to finish it, and the quicker she gets to readi 
the longer time we’ll have for dancing.” And yet 
same club leader had the pleasure of lending four cop 
of the drama to four of the members, and one young rr 
almost literally committed the entire play to memo 
On the whole we were much impressed by the gr 
desire for self-improvement, for study and debate, 
hibited by many of the young men. This very tenden 
in fact, brought one of the most promising of our ear 
clubs to an untimely end. The young men in the cl 
twenty in number, had grown much irritated by 

3 H 










VALUE OF SOCIAL CLUBS 


315 


volity of the girls during their long debates, and had 
tally proposed that three of the most “frivolous” be 
pelled. Pending a final vote, the three culprits ap- 
aled to certain of their friends who were members of 
e Hull-House Men’s Club, between whom and the de- 
ting young men the incident became the cause of a 
larrel so bitter that at length it led to a shooting, 
irtunately the shot missed fire, or it may have been 
te that it was “only intended for a scare,” but at any 
te, we were all thoroughly frightened by this inani¬ 
mation of the hot blood which the defense of woman 
s so often evoked. After many efforts to bring about 
-econciliation, the debating club of twenty young men 
d the seventeen young women, who either were or 
etended to be sober minded, rented a hall a mile west 
Hull-House severing their connection with us be- 
use their ambitious and right-minded efforts had been 
lappreciated, basing this on the ground that we had 
>t urged the expulsion of the so-called “tough” mem- 
:rs of the Men’s Club, who had been involved in the 
fliculty. The seceding club invited me to the first 
eeting in their new quarters that I might present to 
em my version of the situation and set forth the 
cident from the standpoint of Hull-House. The dis- 
ission I had with the young people that evening has 
ways remained with me as one of the moments of 
umination which life in a Settlement so often affords. 

[ response to my position that a desire to avoid all 


316 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


that was ‘Tough” meant to walk only in the path 
smug self-seeking and personal improvement lea 
straight into the pit of self-righteousness and p 
achievement and was exactly what the Settlement 
snot stand for, they contended with much justice 
ambitious young people were obliged for their c 
reputation, if not for their own morals, to avoid 
connection with that which bordered on the tough, 
that it was quite another matter for the Hull-Ho 
i o residents who could afford a more generous judgme 
It was in vain I urged that life teaches us nothing m 
inevitably than that right and wrong are most c 
fusingly confounded; that the blackest wrong may 
within our own motives, and that at the best, right \ 
i s not dazzle us hy its radiant shining, and can only 
found by exerting patience and discrimination. Th 
still maintained their wholesome bourgeois positic 
which I am now quite ready to admit was most reasc 


c 

y 

t) 

i< 

at 

r n 

.11 

d 


;e 

b 

U 

e 

i-| 

ei 

li 

ej 

r I 

J 


able. 

co Of course there were many disappointments cc 
nected with these clubs when the rewards of politic 
and commercial life easily drew the members away frc 
the principles advocated in club meetings. One of t 
young men who had been a shining light in the advoca 

2 5 of municipal reform, deserted in the middle of a refor 
campaign because he had been offered a lucrative offi 
in the City Hall; another even after a course of lectur 
on business morality, “worked” the club itself 












VALUE OF SOCIAL CLUBS 


3U 


1 secure orders for custom-made clothing from samples 
Sf cloth he displayed, although the orders were filled by 
e ready-made suits slightly refitted and delivered at 
double their original price. But nevertheless, there was 
l much to cheer us as we gradually became acquainted 
°.with the daily living of the vigorous young men and 
women who filled to overflowing all the social clubs. 

We have been much impressed during our twenty 
years, by the ready adaptation of city young people to 
%he prosperity arising from their own increased wages 
Lr from the commercial success of their families. This 
quick adaptability is the great gift of the city child, his 
one reward for the hurried changing life which he has 
always led. The working girl has a distinct advantage 
'in the task of transforming her whole family into the 
Vays and connections of the prosperous when she works 
down town and becomes conversant with the manners 
and conditions of a cosmopolitan community. Ihere- 
fore having lived in a Settlement twenty years, I see 
scores of young people who have successfully established 
themselves in life, and in my travels in the city and out¬ 
side, I am constantly cheered by greetings from the 
rising young lawyer, the scholarly rabbi, the successful 
teacher, the prosperous young matron buying clothes 
for her blooming children. “Don’t you remember me? 
I used to belong to a Hull-House club. I once asked 
one of these young people, a man who held a good 
position on a Chicago daily, what special thing Hull- 





318 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

Hou se had meant to him, and he promptly replies 
It was the first house I had ever been in where boo] 
and magazines just lay around as if there were pleni 
of them in the world. Don’t you remember how muc 
s I used to read at that little round table at the back < 
the library? lo have people regard reading as a re; 
sonable occupation changed the whole aspect of life t 
me and I began to have confidence in what I could do. 
Among the young men of the social clubs a larg 
i o proportion of the Jewish ones at least obtain the ad 
vantages of a higher education. The parents make ever 
sacrifice to help them through the high school afte 
which the young men attend universities and pro 
fessional schools, largely through their own efforts 
15 h rom time to time they come back to us with thei 
honors thick upon them; I remember one who returnee 
with the prize in oratory from a contest between severa 
Western state universities, proudly testifying that h< 
had obtained his confidence in our Henry Clay Club 
20 another came back with a degree from Harvard Uni¬ 
versity saying that he had made up his mind to go then 
the summer I read RoyceV ‘‘Aspects of Modem 
I hilosophy with a group of young men who had 
challenged my scathing remark that Herbert Spencei 
2 5 was not the only man who had ventured a solution of 
the riddles of the universe. Occasionally one of these 
learned young folk does not like to be reminded that 
he once lived in our vicinity, but that happens rarely, 






VALUE OF SOCIAL CLUBS 


3i9 


ind for the most part they are loyal to us in much the 
;ame spirit as they are to their own families and 
:raditions. Sometimes they go further and tell us that 


0 
nt 

^:he standards of tastes and code of manners which Hull- 
House has enabled them to form, have made a very 
rreat difference in their perceptions and estimates of 
1 :he larger world as well as in their own reception there. 
Five out of one club of twenty-five young men who had 
Oeld together for eleven years, entered the University 
1 )f Chicago but although the rest of the Club called them 
•he “intellectuals,” the old friendships still held. 

In addition to these rising young people given to de- 
f Date and dramatics, and to the members of the public 
School alumni associations which meet in our rooms, 
;here are hundreds of others who for years have come 
:o Hull-House frankly in search of that pleasure and 
-ecreation which all young things crave and which those 
vho have spent long hours in a factory or shop demand 
as a right. For these young people all sorts of pleasure 
Hubs have been cherished, and large dancing classes 
'aave been organized. One supreme gayety has come 
to be an annual event of such importance that it is 
talked oLfrom year to year. For six weeks before St. 
Patrick’s day, a small group of residents put their best 
powers of invention and construction into preparation 
For a cotillion which is like a pageant in its gayety and 
vigor. The parents sit in the gallery, and the mothers 
appreciate more than any one else perhaps, the value 




320 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

of this ball to which an invitation is so highly prized 
although their standards of manners may differ wideh 
from the conventional, they know full well when th< 
companionship of the young people is safe and unsullied 
s As an illustration of this difference in standard, . 
may instance an early Hull-House picnic arranged b) 
a club of young people, who found at the last momeni 
that the club director could not go and accepted the 
offer of the mother of one of the club members to take 
to charge of them. When they trooped back in the even¬ 
ings tired and happy, they displayed a photograph ol 
the group wherein each man’s arm was carefully placed§ 
about a girl; no feminine waist lacked an arm save that 
of the proud chaperon, who sat in the middle smiling 
s upon all. Seeing that the photograph somewhat sur¬ 
prised us, the chaperon stoutly explained, “This may 
look queer to you, but there wasn’t one thing about that 
picnic that wasn t nice, and her statement was a per¬ 
fectly truthful one. 

o Although more conventional customs are carefully ; 
enforced at our many parties and festivities, and while It 
the dancing classes are as highly prized for the opportu¬ 
nity they afford for enforcing standards as for their 
ostensible aim, the residents at Hull-House, in their IS 
s efforts to provide opportunities for clean recreation, >o 
leceive the most valued help from the experienced i 
wisdom of the older women of the neighborhood, r 
Bowen Hall is constantly used for dancing parties with r 



VALUE OF SOCIAL CLUBS 


321 


ft drinks established in its foyer. The parties given 
7 the Hull-House clubs are by invitation and the 
>ung people themselves carefully maintain their stand- 
d of entrance so that the most cautious mother may 
p safe when her daughter goes to one of our parties, 
jo club festivity is permitted without the presence of 
jdirector; no young man under the influence of liquor 
i allowed; certain types of dancing, often innocently 
arted, are strictly prohibited; and above all, early 
>sing is insisted upon. This standardizing of pleasure 
s always seemed an obligation to the residents of 
all-Hou se, but we are, I hope, saved from that 
iggishness which young people so heartily resent, by 
fce Mardi Gras° dance and other festivities which the 
rfidents themselves arrange and successfully carry out. 

In spite of our belief that the standards of a ball may 
I almost as valuable to those without as to those with- 
i the residents are constantly concerned for those 
riny young people in the neighborhood who are too 
hdonistic to submit to the discipline of a dancing class 
even to the claim of a pleasure club, but who go about 
freebooter fashion to find pleasure wherever it may 


cheaply on" sale. 

Such young people, well meaning but impatient of 
itrol, become the easy victims of the worst type of 
blic d ance halls and of even darker places, whose 
rposes are hidden under music and dancing. We 
re thoroughly frightened when we learned that during 





322 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

the year which ended last December, more than twenl- 
five thousand young people under the age of twenty-fi; 
passed through the Juvenile and Municipal Courts I 
Chicago — approximately one out of every eighty 
5 the entire population, or one out of every fifty-two 
those under twenty-five years of age. One’s heart acf 
for these young people caught by the outside glitter- 
city gayety, who make such a feverish attempt 
snatch it for themselves. The young people in our clu 
xoare comparatively safe, but many instances come 
the knowledge of Hull-House residents which make 
long for the time when the city, through more sm; 
parks, municipal gymnasiums, and schoolrooms op* 
for recreation, can guard from disaster these youi 

1 s people who walk so carelessly on the edge of the pit. 

Ihe heedless girls believe that if they lived in b 
houses and possessed pianos and jewelry, the covet* 
social life would come to them. I know a Bohemi; 
girl who surreptitiously saved her overtime wages un 
20 she had enough money to hire for a week a room with. 
piano in it where young men might come to call, as th< 
could not do in her crowded untidy home. Of cour 
she had no way of knowing the sort of young men wl, 
quickly discover an unprotected girl. 

2 5 Another girl of American parentage who had con 

to Chicago to seek her fortune, found at the end of 
year that sorting shipping receipts in a dark corner * 
a warehouse not only failed to accumulate riches bi 



; 


VALUE OF SOCIAL CLUBS 323 

ft 

id not even bring the “attentions” which her quiet 
auntry home afforded. By dint of long sacrifice she 
ad saved fifteen dollars; with five she bought an 
nitation sapphire necklace, and the balance she 
tanged into a ten dollar bill. The evening her pathetic 5 
ttle snare was set, she walked home with one of the 
erks in the establishment, told him that she had come 
ito a fortune, and was obliged to wear the heirloom 
ecklace to insure its safety, permitted him to see that 
te carried ten dollars in her glove for carfare and con- 1 
ucted him to a handsome Prairie Avenue residence, 
here she gayly bade him good-by and ran up the steps 
mtting herself in the vestibule from which she did not 
nerge until the dazzled and bewildered young man 
ad vanished down the street. 


1 s 


Then there is the ever recurring difficulty about dress; 
le insistence of the young to be gayly bedecked to the 
cter consternation of the hardworking parents who 
*e paying for a house and lot. The Polish girl who 
ole five dollars from her employer’s till with which to 20 
ay a white dress for a church picnic was turned away 
om home by her indignant father, who replaced the 
oney to save the family honor, but would harbor no 
thief” in a household of growing children who, in 
Imte of the sister’s revolt, continued to be dressed in 2 5 
Nark heavy clothes through all the hot summer. There 
\ e a multitude of working girls who for hours carry 
air ribbons and jewelry in their pockets or stockings, 






3 2 4 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

« 

for they can wear them only during the journey to an 
from work. Sometimes this desire to taste pleasure, t 
escape into a world of congenial companionship, take 
more elaborate forms and often ends disastrously. « 
5 recall a charming young girl, the oldest daughter of 
respectable German family, whom I first saw one sprin 
afternoon issuing from a tall factory. She wore a blu 
print gown which so deepened the blue of her eyes tha 
Wordsworth’s line fairly sung itself:— 

o 1 he pliant harebell swinging in the breeze 

On some gray rock. 

I was grimly reminded of that moment a year late 
when I heard the tale of this seventeen-year-old girl 
who had worked steaddy in the same factory for foil 
5 years before she resolved “to see life.” In order not t< 
arouse her parents’ suspicions, she borrowed thirt 
dollars from one of those loan sharks who require m 
security from a pretty girl, so that she might start fron 
home every morning as if to go to work. For three 
o weeks she spent the first part of each dearly bought da\ 
in a department store where she lunched and un 
fortunately made some dubious acquaintances; in the 
afternoon she established herself in a theater and sat 
contentedly hour alter hour, watching the endles: 
s vaudeville until the usual time for returning home. At 
the end of each week she gave her parents her usual 
wage, but when her thirty dollars was exhausted it 




VALUE OF SOCIAL CLUBS 


325 

emed unendurable that she should return to the 
anotony of the factory. In the light of her newly 
quired experience she had learned that possibility 
iich the city ever holds open to the restless girl. 
That more such girls do not come to grief is due to 

I ose mothers who understand the insatiable demand 
r a good time, and if all of the mothers did under- 
md, those pathetic statistics which show that four 
ths of all prostitutes are under twenty years of age 
iDuld be marvelously changed. We are told that “the 
* 11 to live” is aroused in each baby by his mother’s ir- 
cdstible desire to play with him, the physiological 
slue of joy that a child is born, and that the high 
: ath rate in institutions is increased by “the discon¬ 
rated babies” whom no one persuades into living. 

:mething of the same sort is necessary in that second 
rth at adolescence. The young people need affection 
; d understanding, each one for himself, if they are to 
induced to live in an inheritance of decorum and 
rfety and to understand the foundations upon which 
:is orderly world rests. No one comprehends their 
[ eds so sympathetically as those mothers who iron the 
insy starched finery of their grown-up daughters late 
to the night, and who pay for a red velvet parlor set 
: the installment plan, although the younger children 
!iy sadly need new shoes. These mothers apparently 
aerstand the sharp demand for social pleasure and 
i their best to respond to it, although at the same 






326 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

time they constantly minister to all the physical net 
of an exigent family of little children. We often coi 
to a realization of the truth of Walt Whitman’s sta 
ment, that one of the surest sources of wisdom is t 
5 mother of a large family. 

It is but natural, perhaps, that the members of t 
Hull-House Woman’s Club, whose prosperity has giv 
them some leisure and a chance to remove their o\ 
families to neighborhoods less full of temptatior i 
i o should have offered their assistance in our attempt 1 
provide recreation for these restless young people, 
many instances their experience in the club itself h 
enabled them to perceive these needs. One day L 
Juvenile Court officer told me that a woman’s cli p 

1 s member, who has a large family of her own and oi i 

boy sufficiently difficult, had undertaken to care for it 
ward of the Juvenile Court who lived only a block froi ; 
her house, and that she had kept him in the path <$ 
rectitude for six months. In reply to my congratuk 
aotions upon this successful bit of reform to the clu 
woman herself, she said that she was quite ashame 
that she had not undertaken the task earlier for she ha - 
for years known the boy’s mother, who scrubbed a downs 
towm office building, leaving home every evening atf 

2 5 five and returning at eleven during the very time th ; 

b°y could most easily find opportunities for wrong , 
doing. She said that her obligation toward this bo 1 
had not occurred to her until one day when the clul 




VALUE OF SOCIAL CLUBS 


327 


f jmbers were making pillowcases for the Detention 
i! )me of the Juvenile Court, it suddenly seemed per¬ 
tly obvious that her share in the salvation of way- 
Lid children was to care for this particular boy and 
2 had asked the Juvenile Court officer to commit him 
her. She invited the boy to her house to supper every 
y that she might know just where he was at the 
icial moment of twilight, and she adroitly managed 
t keep him under her own roof for the evening if she 
|I not approve of the plans he had made. She con¬ 
ceded with the remark that it was queer that the sight 
c the boy himself hadn’t appealed to her but that the 
Sggestion had come to her in such a roundabout way. 

| She was, of course, reflecting upon a common trait in 
hman nature — that we much more easily see the 
ty at hand when we see it in relation to the social 
ty of which it is a part. When she knew that an effort 
ns being made throughout all the large cities in the 
lited States to reclaim the wayward boy, to provide 
m with reasonable amusement, to give him his chance 
r growth and development, and when she became 
ady to take her share in that movement, she suddenly 
w the concrete case which she had not recognized 


l:fore. 

I We are slowly learning that social advance depends 
|iite as much upon an increase in moral sensibility as 
1 does upon a sense of duty, and of this one could cite 
I any illustrations. I was at one time chairman ol the 






328 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

Child Labor Committee in the General Federation 
Woman’s Clubs, which sent out a schedule asking ea 
club in the United States to report as nearly as possit 
all the working children under fourteen living in ij 
5 vicinity. A Florida club filled out the schedule with ;1 
astonishing number of Cuban children who were j 
work in sugar mills, and the club members registered) 
complaint that our committee had sent the schedule t( 
late, for if they had realized the conditions earlier, the 
' o might have presented a bill to the legislature which ha 
now adjourned. Of course the children had been worl 
ing in the sugar mills for years, and had probably gor : 
back and forth under the very eyes of the club women 
but the women had never seen them, much less felt an 
15 obligation to protect them, until they joined a club 
and the club joined a Federation, and the Federatio : 
appointed a Child Labor Committee who sent them - 
schedule. With their quickened perceptions they the 
saw the rescue of these familiar children in the light o 
20 a social obligation. Through some such experiences th- 
members of the Hull-House Women’s Club have ob 
tamed the power of seeing the concrete through the 
general and have entered into various undertakings. 

Ve iy eai ly in its history the club formed what wL 
2 s called “A Social Extension Committee.” Once a 
month this committee gives parties to people in the 
neighborhood who for any reason seem forlorn and 
without much social pleasure. One evening they in- 



VALUE OF SOCIAL CLUBS 329 

sd only Italian women, thereby crossing a distinct 
ial "gulf,” for there certainly exists as great a sense 
social difference between the prosperous Irish- 
lerican women and the South-Italian peasants as 
ween any two sets of people in the city of Chicago. 
5 Italian women, who were almost eastern in their 
fits, all stayed at home and sent their husbands, and 
social extension committee entered the drawing- 
m to find it occupied by rows of Italian working- 
1, who seemed to prefer to sit in chairs along the wall. 
ty were quite ready to be "socially extended,” but 
inly puzzled as to what it was all about. The even- 
finally developed into a very successful party, not 
imuch because the committee were equal to it, as 
ause the Italian men rose to the occasion. 

Jntiring pairs of them danced the tarantella; they 
g Neapolitan songs; one of them performed some of 
se wonderful sleight-of-hand tricks so often seen on 
streets of Naples; they explained the coral finger of 
Januarius which they wore; they politely ate the 
^nge American refreshments; and when the evening 
over, one of the committee said to me, " Do you 
w I am ashamed of the way I have always talked 
ut ‘dagos’; they are quite like other people, only 
must take a little more pains with them. I have 
1 nagging my husband to move off M Street because 
/ are moving in, but I am going to try staying 
iile and see if I can make a real acquaintance with 



330 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

some of them.” lo my mind at that moment t 
speaker had passed from the region of the uncultivat 
person into the possibilities of the cultivated perse 
1 he former is bounded by a narrow outlook on li 
5 unable to overcome differences ol dress and habit, a 
his interests are slowly contracting within a circu 
scribed area; while the latter constantly tends to -i 
more a citizen of the world because of his growi i 
understanding of all kinds of people with their varyi I 
o experiences. We send our young people to Europe tff 
they may lose their provincialism and be able to jud 
their fellows by a more universal test, as we send the f 
to college that they may attain the cultural backgroui 
and a larger outlook; all of these it is possible to acqui 
sin other ways, as this member of the woman’s club h; 
discovered for herself. i 

1 his social extension committee under the leadersh 
of an ex-president of the Club, a Hull-House reside 
with a wide acquaintance, also discover many of tho 
o lonely people of which every city contains so large 
number. We are only slowly apprehending the ven 
real dangei to the individual who fails to establish son 
sort of genuine relation with the people who surrour 
him. We are all more or less familiar with the resul 
sof isolation in rural districts; the Bronte sisters 0 hay 
portrayed the hideous immorality and savagery of tl 
remote dwellers on the bleak moorlands of norther 
England; Miss Wilkins has written of the overdevelope 




VALUE OF SOCIAL CLUBS 331 

11 of the solitary New Englander; but tales still wait 
be told of the isolated city dweller. In addition to 
e lonely young man recently come to town, and 
e country family who have not yet made their con- 
ctions, are many other people who, because of 
mperament or from an estimate of themselves which 
11 not permit them to make friends with the ‘‘people 
ound 'here,” or who, because they are victims to a 
mbination of circumstances, lead a life as lonely and 
[touched by the city about them as if they were in 
mote country districts. The very fact that it requires 
; effort to preserve isolation from the tenement-house 
2 which flows all about them, makes the character 
iffer and harsher than mere country solitude could do. 
!Many instances of this come into my mind: the 
led, ladylike hairdresser, who came and went to her 
urk for twenty years, carefully concealing her dwelling 

I ice from the “other people in the shop,” moving 
lenever they seemed too curious about it, and priding 
rself that no neighbor had ever “stepped inside her 
or,” and yet when discovered through an asthma 
nich forced her to crave friendly offices, she was most 
f;ponsive and even gay in a social atmosphere. An- 
lier woman made a long effort to conceal the poverty 
[ailting from her husband’s inveterate gambling and 
secure for her children the educational advantages to 
iiich her family had always been accustomed. Her 
e children, who are now university graduates, do not 





332 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

realize how hard and solitary was her early married li 
when we first knew her, and she was beginning to regi 
the isolation in which her children were being rear* 
for she saw that their lack of early companions!" 
5 would always cripple their power to make friends. S 
was glad to avail herself of the social resources of Hu 
House for them, and at last even for herself. 

ihe leader of the social extension committee h 
also been able, through her connection with the vaca 
olot garden movement in Chicago, to maintain a mo 
flourishing “friendly club” largely composed of peop 
who cultivate these garden plots. During the ch 
evening at least, they regain something of the ease ! 
the man who is being estimated by the bushels per ac 
s of potatoes he has raised, and not by that flimsy ci 
judgment so often based upon store clothes. The 
jollity and enthusiasm are unbounded, expressing itse 
in clog dances and rousing old songs, often in sharp co 
trast to the overworked, worn aspects of the member 
o Of course there are surprising possibilities discovere 
through other clubs, in one of Greek women or in tf 
“circolo Italiano,” for a social club often affords 
sheltered space in which the gentler social usages ma 
be exercised, as the more vigorous clubs afford a poir 
5 of departure into larger social concerns. 

The experiences of the Hull-House Woman’s Clu 
constantly react upon the family life of the member 
Their husbands come with them to the annual mid 
















VALUE OF SOCIAL CLUBS 333 

inter reception, to club concerts and entertainments5 
2 little children come to the May party, with its 
hieing and games; the older children, to the day in 
ne when prizes are given to those sons and daughters 
the members who present a good school record as 5 
iduates either from the eighth grade or from a high 
tool. 

t seemed, therefore, hut a fit recognition of their 
>rts when the president of the club erected a building 
nned especially for their needs, with their own 10 
ary and a hall large enough for their various social 
llertakings, although of course Bowen Hall is con- 
intly put to many other uses. 

t was under the leadership of this same able presi- 
11 that the club achieved its wider purposes and took 15 
jplace with the other forces for city betterment. The 
i had begun, as nearly all women’s clubs do, upon 
basis of self-imprdvement, although the foundations 
this later development had been laid by one of their 
iest presidents, who was the first probation officer 20 
1 he Juvenile Court, and who had so shared her ex- 
E ences with the club that each member felt the truth 
iweil as the pathos of the lines inscribed on her 
jnorial tablet erected in their club library:— 

“As more exposed to suffering and distress 0 25 

Thence also more alive to tenderness.” 

ach woman had discovered opportunities in her 





334 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

own experience for this same tender understandi 
and under its succeeding president, Mrs. Pelham,, 
its determination to be of use to the needy and < 
tressed, the club developed many philanthropic unc 
5 takings from the humble beginnings of a linen cE 
kept constantly filled with clothing for the sick and pc 
It required, however, an adequate knowledge of.j 
verse city conditions so productive of juvenile de 
quency and a sympathy which could enkindle itself 
omany others of divers faiths and training, to arouse 
club to its finest public spirit. This was done by a la 
president, Mrs. Bowen, 0 who, as head of the Juvei 
Protective Association, had learned that the morali: 
energy of a group is best fitted to cope with the cc 
5 plicated problems of a city; but it required ability 
an unusual order to evoke a sense of social obligat 
from the very knowledge of adverse city conditi< 
which the club members possessed, and to conned 
with the many civic and philanthropic organizations 
o the city in such wise as to make it socially useful. 11 
financial and representative connection with outs 
organizations is valuable to the club only as it expre^ 
its sympathy and kindliness at the same time in o 
crete form. A group of members who lunch with IV! 

5 Bowen each week at Hull-House discuss, not o 
topics of public interest, sometimes with experts wh 
they have long known through their mutual und 





VALUE OF SOCIAL CLUBS 335 

kings, but also their own club affairs in the light of 
is larger knowledge. 

Thus the value of social clubs broadens out in one’s 
nd to an instrument of companionship through which 
my may be led from a sense of isolation to one of 
uc responsibility, even as another type of club pro¬ 
les recreational facilities for those who have had only 
ianingless excitements, or as a third type opens new 
d interesting vistas of life to those who are ambitious. 
The entire organization of the social life at Hull- 
mse, while it has been fostered and directed by 
;idents and others, has been largely pushed and 
:alized from within by the club members themselves. 

• Walter Besant once told me thac Hull-House stood 
his mind more nearly for the ideal of the “ Palace of 
dight”° than did the £k London People’s Palace” be- 
use we had depended upon the social resources of the 
ople using it. He begged me not to allow Hull-House 
become too educational. He believed it much easier 
develop a polytechnic institute than a large recrea- 
>nal center, but he doubted whether the former was 
useful. 

The social clubs form a basis of acquaintanceship for 
my people living in other parts of the city. Through 
endly relations with individuals, which is perhaps 
3 sanest method of approach, they are thus brought 
.0 contact, many of them for the first time, with the 



336 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

industrial and social problems challenging the mc^ 
resources of our contemporary life. During our tweiJ 
years hundreds of these non-residents have direcid( 
clubs and classes, and have increased the number ( 
s Chicago citizens who are conversant with adverse soci 
conditions and conscious that only by the unceasil 
devotion of each, according to his strength, shall ij 
compulsions and hardships, the stupidities and cruelt* 
of life be overcome. The number of people thus ( 
i o formed is constantly increasing in all our America 
cities, and they may in time remove the reproach 
social neglect and indifFerence which has so long rest 
upon the citizens of the new world. I recall the c 
perience of an Englishman who, not only because he w 
15 a member of the Queen’s Cabinet and bore a title, b 
also because he was an able statesman, was entertain j 
with great enthusiasm by the leading citizens of Chicaj: a 
At a large dinner party he asked the lady sitting ne 
to him what our tenement-house legislation was 
20 regard to the cubic feet of air required for each occupa 
of a tenement bedroom; upon her disclaiming a) 
knowledge of the subject, the inquiry was put to all t 
diners at the long table, all of whom showed surprL 
that they should be expected to possess this information 
25 In telling me the incident afterward, the English gue 
said that such indifference could not have been foui 
among the leading citizens of London, whose pub! 
spirit had been aroused to provide such housing co 




VALUE OF SOCIAL CLUBS 


337 


IQ 


tions as should protect tenement dwellers at least 
eipm wanton loss of vitality and lowered industrial 
ciiciency. When I met the same Englishman in 
>ndon five years afterwards, he immediately asked me 
)c tether Chicago citizens were still so indifferent to the 
nditions of the poor that they took no interest in tlieir 
oper housing. I was quick with that defense which 
American is obliged to use so often in Europe, that 
r very democracy so long presupposed that each 
izen could care for himself that we are slow to develop 
li sense of social obligation. He smiled at the familiar 
rases and was still inclined to attribute our indiffer- 
ce to sheer ignorance of social conditions. 

The entire social development of Hull-House is so 
like what I predicted twenty years ago, that I venture 
quote from that ancient writing as an end to this 
[apter. 


lr 

| l he social organism has broken down through large districts of our 
£at cities. Many of the people living there are very poor, the 
f jority of them without leisure or energy for anything but the gain 
jjmbsistence. 

Ijrhey live for the moment side by side, many of them without 
ihwledge of each other, without fellowship, without local tradition 

( public spirit, without social organization of any kind. Practically 
jhing is done to remedy this. The people who might do it, who 
he the social tact and training, the large houses, and the traditions 
tl customs of hospitality, live in other parts of the city. The club 
fises, libraries, galleries, and semi-public conveniences for social life 
a also blocks away. We find workingmen organized into armies of 





338 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

producers because men of executive ability and business sagacity h 
found it to their interests thus to organize them. But these work 
men are not organized socially; although lodging in crowded tenem 
houses, they are living without a corresponding social contact. 

5 chaos is as great as it would be were they working in huge facto 
without foreman or superintendent. Their ideas and resources 
cramped, and the desire for higher social pleasure becomes extir 
They have no share in the traditions and social energy which make, 
progress. Too often their only place of meeting is a saloon, their o 
i o host a bartender; a local demagogue forms their public opinion. IV.j 
of ability and refinement, of social power and university cultivati 
stay away from them. Personally, I believe the men who lose m. 
are those who thus stay away. But the paradox is here: wl 
cultivated people do stay away from a certain portion of the popu 

1 5 tion, when all social advantages are persistently withheld, it may 

for years the result itself is pointed to as a reason and is used as 
argument for the continued withholding. 

It is constantly said that because the masses have never had soc 
advantages, they do not want them, that they are heavy and di 
20 and that it will take political or philanthropic machinery to char, 
them. This divides a city into rich and poor; into the favored, w' 
express their sense of the social obligation by gifts of money, and ii 
the unfavored, wdio express it by clamoring for a “share” — both 
them actuated by a vague sense of justice. This division of the c: 

2 s would be more justifiable, however, if the people w T ho thus isol: 

themselves on certain streets and use their social ability for ea 
other, gained enough thereby and added sufficient to the sum total 
social progress to justify the withholding of the pleasures and resu 
of that progress from so many people who ought to have them. B‘ 

3 o they cannot accomplish this for the social spirit discharges itself 

many forms, and no one form is adequate to its total expression. 


CHAPTER XVI 
Arts at Hull-House 

The first building erected for Hull-House contained 
t'art gallery, well lighted for day and evening use, and 
I: first exhibit of loaned pictures was opened in June, 
1 ) 1 , by Mr. and Mrs. Barnett 0 of London. It is al- 
iys pleasant to associate their hearty sympathy with 5 
lit first exhibit, and thus to connect it with their 
f neer efforts at Toynbee Hall to secure for working 
|>ple the opportunity to know the best art, and with 
Hr establishment of the first permanent art gallery in 
i: industrial quarter. io 

|Ve took pride in the fact that our first exhibit con- 
lied some of the best pictures Chicago afforded, and 
I conscientiously insured them against fire and care- 
i y guarded them by night and day. 

I'Ve had five of these exhibits during two years, after 15 
1 gallery was completed: two of oil paintings, one of 
| engravings and etchings, one of water colors, and 
I: of pictures especially selected for use in the public 
tools. These exhibits were surprisingly well attended 
|l thousands of votes were cast for the most popular 20 
Itures. Their value to the neighborhood of course had 
[be determined by each one of us according to the 


339 








3 4 o TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

value he attached to beauty and the escape it offe 
from dreary reality into the realm of the imaginatic 
M iss Starr always insisted that the arts should recei 
adequate recognition at Hull-House and urged th 
5one must always remember “the hungry individual so 
which without art will have passed unsolaced and unfe 
followed by other souls who lack the impulse his shou 
have given.” 

The exhibits afforded pathetic evidence that tl 
o older immigrants do not expect the solace of art in th 
country; an Italian expressed great surprise when 1 ‘ 
found that we, although Americans, still liked picture 
and said quite naively that he didn’t know that Amei 
cans cared for anything but dollars — that looking ; 
s pictures was something people only did in Italy. 

The extreme isolation of the Italian colony was den' 
onstrated by the fact that he did not know that thei 
was a public art gallery in the city nor any houses i 
which pictures were regarded as treasures, 
o A Greek was much surprised to see a photograph ( 
the Acropolis at Hull-House because he had lived i 
Chicago for thirteen years and had never before me 
any Americans who knew about this foremost glory c 1 
the world. Before he left Greece he had imagined th a 
5 Americans would be most eager to see pictures c 1 
Athens, and as he was a graduate of a school of techno 
°gy? be had prepared a book of colored drawings an 
had made a collection of photographs which he was sur 


ARTS AT HULL-HOUSE 34 i 

.mericans would enjoy. But although from his fruit 
;and near one of the large railroad stations he had 
onversed with many Americans and had often tried to 
ad the conversation hack to ancient Greece, no one 
ad responded, and he had at last concluded that “the 
tsople of Chicago knew nothing of ancient times.” 

. The loan exhibits were continued until the Chicago 
rt Institute was opened free to the public on Sunday 
iternoons and parties were arranged at Hull-House 
id conducted there by a guide.' In time even these 
irties were discontinued as the galleries became better 
iiown in all parts of the city and the Art Institute 
anagement did much to make pictures popular. 

From the first a studio was maintained at Hull-House, 
ihich has developed through the changing years under 

I e direction of Miss Benedict, one of the residents who 
a member of the faculty in the Art Institute. Build- 
gs on the Hull-House quadrangle furnish studios for 
Stists who find something of the same spirit in the con- 
l;uous Italian colony that the French artist is tradi- 
linally supposed to discover in his beloved Latin 
Jiarter. These artists uncover something of the 
|cturesque in the foreign colonies, which they have 
rproduced in painting, etching, and lithography. They 
fid their classes filled not only by young people pos- 
sssing facility and sometimes talent, but also by older 
pople to whom the studio affords the one opportunity 
c escape from dreariness: a widow with four children, 




342 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

who supplemented a very inadequate income by teac 
ing the piano, for six years never missed her week 
painting lesson because it was “her one pleasure”; ai 
other woman, whose youth and strength had gone ini 
5 the care of an invalid father, poured into her afternoc 
in the studio once a week, all of the longing for sel 
expression which she habitually suppressed. 

Perhaps the most satisfactory results of the studi 
have been obtained through the classes of young me 
owho are engaged in'the commercial arts, and who ai 
glad to have an opportunity to work out their ow 
ideas. I his is true of young engravers and lithographer; 
of the men who ha ve to do with posters and illustratior 
in various ways. I he little pile of stones and the lithe 
sgrapher’s handpress in a corner of the studio have bee 
used in many an experiment, as has a set of beautifi 
type loaned to Hull-House by a bibliophile. 

I he work of the studio almost imperceptibly merge 
into the crafts and well within the first decade a sho 
o was opened at Hull-House under the direction of sever; 
residents who were also members of the Chicago Art 
and Crafts Society. 1 his shop is not merely a scho( 
where people are taught and then sent forth to use thei 
teaching in art according to their individual initiativ 
sand opportunity, but where those who have alread 
been carefully trained may express the best they cai 
in wood or metal. 1 he Settlement soon discovers ho\ 
difficult it is to put a fringe of art on the end of a da 


ARTS AT HULL-HOUSE 


343 

ent in a factory. We constantly see young people 
ing overhurried work. Wrapping bars of soap in 
sees of paper might at least give the pleasure of ac- 
racy and repetition if it could be done at a normal 
ce, but when paid for by the piece, speed becomes the 5 
le requirement and the last suggestion of human 
Merest is taken away. In contrast to this the Hull- 
3use shop affords many examples of the restorative 
wer in the exercise of a genuine craft. A young 
issian who, like too many of his countrymen, had io 
ide a desperate effort to fit himself for a learned pro- 
ision, and who had almost finished his course in a 
*ht law school, used to watch constantly the work 
ing done in the metal shop at Hull-House. One even- 
y in a moment of sudden resolve, he took off his coat, 15 
t down at one of the benches, and began to work, 
viously as a very clever silversmith. He had long 
ncealed his craft because he thought it would hurt his 
orts as a lawyer and because he imagined an office 
ire honorable and “more American” than a shop. 20 
he worked on during his two leisure evenings each 
ek, his entire bearing and conversation registered the 
ief of one who abandons the effort he is not fitted for 
d becomes a man on his own feet, expressing himself 
rough a familiar and delicate technique. 25 

Miss Starr at length found herself quite impatient 
rh her role of lecturer on the arts, while all the handi- 
ift about her was untouched by beauty and did not 






344 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

even reflect the interest of the workman. She took 
training in bookbinding in London under Mr. Cobde 
Sanderson and established her bindery at Hull-Hot 
in which design and workmanship, beauty and th( 
soughness are taught to a small number of apprentic 
From the very first winter, concerts which are st 
continued were given every Sunday afternoon in t- 
Hull-House drawing-room and later, as the audienc 
increased, in the larger halls. For these we are indebt 
oto musicians from every part of the city. Mr. Willia 
Tomlins early trained large choruses of adults as 1 
assistants did of children, and the response to all 
these showed that while the number of people in o 
vicinity caring for the best music was not large, th< 
s constituted a steady and appreciative group. It was 
connection with these first choruses that a publi 
spirited citizen of Chicago offered a prize for the be; 
labor song, competition to be open to the entire countr 
The responses to the offer literally filled three lari 
o barrels and speaking at least for myself as one of tl 
bewildered judges, we were more disheartened by the- 
quality than even by their overwhelming bulk. A 
parently the workers of America are not yet ready < 
sing, although I recall a creditable chorus trained 
s Hull-House for a large meeting in sympathy with tl 
anthracite coal strike in which the swinging lines 

“Who was it made the coal? 

Our God as well as theirs” 


ARTS AT HULL-HOUSE 345 

emed to relieve the tension of the moment. Miss 
leanor Smith, the head of the Hull-House Music 
:hool, who had put the words to music, performed the 
me office for the “Sweatshop” of the Yiddish poet,° 
e translation of which presents so graphically the 
wilderment and tedium of the New York shop that 
might be applied to almost any other machine in- 
istry as the first verse indicates:— 

“Ihe roaring of the wheels has filled my ears, 

The clashing and the clamor shut me in, 

Myself, my soul, in chaos disappears, 

I cannot think or feel amid the din.” 

may be that this plaint explains the lack of labor 
igs in this period of industrial maladjustment when 
e worker is overmastered by his very tools. In addi- 
n to sharing with our neighborhood the best music 
could procure, we have conscientiously provided 
*eful musical instruction that at least a few young 
3ple might understand those old usages of art; that 
fey might master its trade secrets, for after all it is 
ly through a careful technique that artistic ability 
1 express itself and be preserved. 

[From the beginning we had classes in music, and the 
all-House Music School, which is housed in quarters 
uts own in our quieter court, was opened in 1893. The 
100I is designed to give a thorough musical instruction 
1 a limited number of children. From the first lessons 





346 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

they are taught to compose and to reduce to order tl 
musical suggestions which may come to them, and 
this wise the school has sometimes been able to recov 
the songs of the immigrants through their childre 
5 Some of these folk songs have never been committed ,■ 
paper, but have survived through the centuries becau 
of a touch of undying poetry which the world has alwa^ 
cherished; as in the song of a Russian who is digging 
post hole and finds his task dull and difficult until 1 
o strikes a stratum of red sand, which, in addition i 
making digging easy, reminds him of the red hair of h 
sweetheart, and all goes merrily as the song lifts into 
joyous melody. I recall again the almost hilarious ei 
joyment of the adult audience to whom it was sung b 
s the children who had revived it, as well as the moi 
sober appreciation of the hymns taken from the lips ( 
the cantor, whose father before him had officiated i 
the sjmagogue. 

1 he recitals and concerts given by the school ai 
o attended by large and appreciative audiences. On tin 
Sunday before Christmas the program of Christma 
songs draws together people of the most divergin 
faiths. In the deep tones of the memorial organ erecte 
at Hull-House, we realize that music is perhaps th 
s most potent agent for making the universal appeal an 
inducing men to forget their differences. 

Some of the pupils in the music school have develops 
during the years into trained musicians and are sup 


ARTS AT HULL-HOUSE 


tl 


347 


§ 


orting themselves in their chosen profession. On the 
ther hand, we constantly see the most promising 
' msieal ability extinguished when the young people 
iter industries which so sap their vitality that they 
mnot carry on serious study in the scanty hours out- 
de of factory work. Many cases indisputably illustrate 
nis: a Bohemian girl, who, in order to earn money for 
-essirig family needs, first ruined her voice in a six 
onths’ constant vaudeville engagement, returned to 
ir trade, working overtime in a vain effort to continue 
te vaudeville income; another young girl whom Hull- 
ouse had sent to the high school so long as her parents 
•nsented, because we realized that a beautiful voice is 
{ten unavailable through lack of the informing mind, 
Iter extinguished her promise in a tobacco factory; a 
1 ird girl, who had supported her little sisters since she 
'as fourteen, eagerly used her fine voice for earning 
loney at entertainments held late after her day’s work, 
util exposure and fatigue ruined her health as well as 
; musician’s future; a young man whose music-loving 
jfmily gave him every possible opportunity, and who 
Reduced some charming and even joyous songs during 
e long struggle with tuberculosis which preceded his 
kath, had made a brave beginning, not only as a teach- 
of music but as a composer. In the little service held 
Hull-House in his memory, when the children sang 
Ijs composition, “How t Sweet is the Shepherd’s Sweet 
|)t,” it was hard to realize that such an interpretive 




348 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

pastoral could have been produced by one whose chil 
hood had been passed in a crowded city quarter. 

Even that bitter experience did not prepare us fi 
the sorrowful year when six promising pupils out of 
5 class of fifteen developed tuberculosis. It required bi 
little penetration to see that during the eight years tl 
class of fifteen school children had come together to tl 
music school, they had approximately an even chanc 
but as soon as they reached the legal working age on! 
oa scanty moiety of those who became self-supportir 
could endure the strain of long hours and bad air. Thi 
the average human youth, “With all the sweetness < 
the common dawn,” is flung into the vortex of ii 
dustrial life wherein the everyday tragedy escapes i 
5 save when one of them becomes conspicuously ui 
fortunate. Twice in one year we were compelled 

“To find the inheritance of this poor child 
His little kingdom of a forced grave.” 

Ith as been pointed out many times that Art lives b« 
o devouring her own offspring and the world has come t 
justify even that sacrifice, but w^e are unfortified an 
unsolaced when we see the children of Art devourec 
not by her, but by the uncouth stranger, Modern Ir 
dustry, who, needlessly ruthless and brutal to her ow 
5 children, is quickly fatal to the offspring of the gentlt 
mother. And so schools in art for those who go to wor 
at the age when more fortunate young people are sti 





ARTS AT HULL-HOUSE 


349 


ieltered and educated, constantly epitomize one of the 
lunting problems of life: why do we permit the waste 
this most precious huilian faculty, this consummate 
Tssession of civilization? When we fail to provide the 
issel in which it may be treasured, it runs out upon 
le ground and is irretrievably lost. 

' The universal desire for the portrayal of life lying 
aite outside of personal experience evinces itself in 
iany forms. One of the conspicuous featuies of our 
rughborhood, as of all industrial quarters, is the per- 
stency with which the entire population attends the 
leater. The verv first day I saw Halsted Street, a long 
ne of young men and boys stood outside the gallery 
itrance of the Bijou Theater, waiting for the Sunday 
latinee to begin at two o’clock, although it was only 
igh noon. This Waiting crowd might have been seen 
irery Sunday afternoon during the twenty years which 
ave elapsed since then. Our first Sunday evening in 
lull-House, when a group of small boys sat on our 
iazza and told us “about things around here,” their 
dk was all of the theater and of the astonishing things 

iey had seen that afternoon. 

But quite as it was difficult to discover the habits 
nd purposes of this group of boys because they much 
referred talking about the theater to contemplating 
heir own lives, so it was all along the line, the young 
ien told us their ambitions in the phrases of stage 
eroes, and the girls, so far as their romantic dreams 


I o 


I 5 


2 O 


2 5 






i 5 


2 5 


350 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

could be shyly put into words, possessed no others b 
those soiled by long use in the melodrama. All of the 
young people looked upon an afternoon a week in tl 
gallery of a Halsted Street theater as their one oj 
> portunity to see life. J he sort of melodrama they st 
there has recently been described as “the ten commanc 
ments written in red fire.” Certainly the villain alwa^ 
comes to a violent end, and the young and handsom 
hero is rewarded by marriage with a beautiful gtr 
usually the daughter of a millionaire, but after all tha 
is not a portrayal of the morality of the ten command 
ments any more than of life itself. 

Nevertheless the theater, such as it was, appeared t( 
be the one agency which freed the boys and girls fron 
that destiuctive isolation of those who drag themselves 
up to maturity by themselves, and it gave them a 
glimpse of that order and beauty into which even the 
poorest diama endeavors to restore the bewildering 
facts of life. The most prosaic young people bear 
’ testimony to this overmastering desire. A striking 
illustration of this came to us during our second yeaEs 
residence on Halsted Street through an incident in the 
Italian colony, where the men have always boasted that 
they were able to guard their daughters from the dan¬ 
gers of city life, and until evil Italians entered the busi¬ 
ness of the white slave traffic, their boast was well 
founded. 1 he first Italian girl to go astray known to 
the 1 esidents of Hull-House, was so fascinated by the 











ARTS AT HULL-HOUSE 


35i 

utage that on her way home from work she always 
: >itered outside a theater before the enticing posters, 
hree months after her elopement with an actor, her 
istracted mother received a picture of her dressed in 
,t he men’s clothes in which she appeared in vaudeville. 5 
ler family mourned her as dead and her name was 
ever mentioned among them nor in the entire colony, 
i n further illustration of an overmastering desire to see 
r fe as portrayed on the stage are two young girls whose 
Dber parents did not approve of the theater and would 10 
How no money for such foolish purposes. In sheer 
esperation the sisters evolved a plot that one of them 
/ould feign a toothache, and while she was having her 
Doth pulled by a neighboring dentist the other would 
teal the gold crowns from his table, and with the money 15 
bus procured they could attend the vaudeville theater 
j very night on their way home from work. Apparently 
he pain and wrongdoing did not weigh for a moment 
gainst the anticipated pleasure, i he plan was carried 
ut to the point of selling the gold crowns to a pawn- 20 
roker when the disappointed girls were arrested. 

All this effort to see the play took place in the years 
efore the five-cent theaters had become a feature of 
very crowded city thoroughfare and before their 

i “opularity had induced the attendance of two and a 25 
uarter million people in the United States every 
wenty-four hours. The eagerness of the penniless 
hildren to get into these magic spaces is responsible for 






352 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

an entire crop of petty crimes made more easy becau 
two children are admitted for one nickel at the lastpe 
formance when the hour is late and the theater nearl 
deserted. The Hull-House residents were aghast at th 
s early popularity of these mimic shows, and in the daj 
before the inspection of films and the present regulatior 
for the five-cent theaters, we established at Hull-Hous 
a moving picture show. Although its success justifie 
its existence, it was so obviously but one in the midst c 
i o hundreds that it seemed much more advisable to tun 
our attention to the improvement of all of them, o 
rather to assist as best we could the successful effort 
m this direction by the Juvenile Protective Association 
However, long before the five-cent theater was ever 
is heard of, we had accumulated much testimony as tc 
the power of the drama, and we would have been dul 
indeed if we had not availed ourselves of the use of th( 
play at Hull-House, not only as an agent of recreation 
and education, but as a vehicle of self-expression for the 
20teeming young life all about us. 

Long before the Hull-House theater was built we 
had many plays, first in the drawing-room and later in 
the gymnasium. The young people’s clubs never tired 
of rehearsing and preparing for these dramatic occasions, 

2 s and we also discovered that older people were almost 
equally ready and talented. We quickly learned that 
no celebration at Thanksgiving was so popular as a 
graphic portrayal on the stage of the Pilgrim Fathers, 









ARTS AT HULL-HOUSE 


353 

id we were often put to it to reduce to dramatic 
Fects the great days of patriotism and religion. 

At one of our early Christmas celebrations Long- 
How’s “Golden Legend” was given, the actors por- 
aying it with the touch of the miracle play spirit which 5 
reflects. I remember an old blind man, who took the 
art of a shepherd, said, at the end of the last per- 
irmance, “Kind Heart,” a name by which he always 
Idressed me, “it seems to me that I have been waiting 
1 my life to hear some of these things said. I am glad 10 
e had so many performances, for I think I can re¬ 
ember them to the end. It is getting hard for me to 
>ten to reading, but the different voices and all made 
lis very plain. ” Had he not perhaps made a legitimate 
rnnand upon the drama, that it shall express for us x 5 
lat which we have not been able to formulate for our- 
:lves, that it shall warm us with a sense of com- 
anionship with the experiences of others; does not 
revy genuine drama present our relations to each other 
id to the world in which we find ourselves in such wise 20 
; may fortify us to the end of the journey? 

The immigrants in the neighborhood of Hull-House 
ive utilized our little stage in an endeavor to reproduce 
le past of their own nations through those immortal 
ramas which have escaped from the restraining bond 25 
■ one country into the land of the universal. 

A large colony of Greeks near Hull-House, who often 
el that their history and classic background are com- 


354 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

pletely ignored by Americans, and that they are easil 
confused with the more ignorant immigrants from othd 
parts of southeastern Europe, welcome an occasion t 
present Greek plays in the ancient text. With expei 
5 help in the difficulties of staging and rehearsing a class! 
play, they reproduced the “Ajax” of Sophocles 0 upon th 
Hull-House stage. It was a genuine triumph to th 
actors who felt that they were “showing forth th 
glory of Greece” to “ignorant Americans.” Th 
i o scholar, who came with a copy of Sophocles in hand an< 
followed the play with real enjoyment, did not in th 
least realize that the revelation of the love of Greell 
poets was mutual between the audience and the actors! 
The Greeks have quite recently assisted an enthusias 
i 5 in producing “Electra,” 0 while the Lithuanians, th<I 
Poles, and other Russian subjects often use the Hull 
House stage to present plays in their own tongue, which 
shall at one and the same time keep alive their sense o; 
participation in the great Russian revolution and re- 
20 lieve their feelings in regard to it. There is something 
still more appealing in the yearning efforts the immi¬ 
grants sometimes make to formulate their situation m 
America. I recall a play written by an Italian play¬ 
wright of our neighborhood, which depicted the in- 
2 5 solent break between Americanized sons and old coun- 
try parents, so touchingly that it moved to tears all the 
oldei Italians in the audience. Did the tears of each 
express relief in finding that others had had the same 



ARTS AT HULL-HOUSE 355 

V 

xperience as himself, and did the knowledge free each 
ne from a sense of isolation and an injured belief that 
is children were the worst of all? 

This effort to understand life through its dramatic 
ortrayal, to see one’s own participation intelligibly set s 
nth, becomes difficult when one enters the field of 
ocial development, but even here it is not impossible if 
Settlement group is constantly searching for new 
laterial. 

A labor story appearing in the Atlantic Monthly was i 0 
indly dramatized for us by the author, who also super- 
ltended its presentation upon the Hull-House stage, 
he little drama presented the untutored effort of a 
rades-union man to secure for his side the beauty of self- 
acrifice, the glamour of martyrdom, which so often i 5 
;ems to belong solely to the nonunion forces. The 
resentation of the play was attended by an audience 
f trades-unionists and employers and those other 
eople who are supposed to make public opinion. To- 
ether they felt the moral beauty of the man’s con- 2 o 
lusion that “it’s the side that suffers most that will 

i dn out in this war — the saints is the only ones that 
as got the world under their feet — we’ve got to do 
Ihe way they done if the unions is to stand,” so coin- 
letely that it seemed quite natural that he should 25 
prfeit his life upon the truth of this statement. 

The dramatic arts have gradually been developed at 
lull-House through amateur companies, one of which 




356 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

has held together for more than fifteen years. T 
members were originally selected from the young peof 
who had evinced talent in the plays the social clu 
were always giving, but the association now adds 
s itself only as a vacancy occurs. Some of them have d 
veloped almost a professional ability, although co 
trary to all predictions and in spite of several offei 
none of them have taken to a stage career. Th< 
present all sorts of plays from melodrama and comec 
i ° to those of Shaw, Ibsen, and Galsworthy. The latt 
are surprisingly popular, perhaps because of their sii 
cere attempt to expose the shams and pretenses of coj 
temporary life and to penetrate into some of its pe 
plexing social and domestic situations. Through sue 

1 s plays the stage may become a pioneer teacher of soci, 

righteousness. 

I have come to believe, however, that the stage ma 
do more than teach, that much of our current mor; 
instruction will not endure the test of being cast into | 
20 lifelike mold, and when presented in dramatic form wi 
reveal itself as platitudinous and effete. That whic 
may have sounded like righteous teaching when it wa 
remote and wordy, will be challenged afresh when it i 
obliged to simulate life itself. 

2 5 This function of the stage, as a reconstructing an 

reorganizing agent of accepted moral truths, came t 
me with overwhelming force as I listened to the Passio 
Play at Oberammergau 0 one beautiful summer’s day ii 



ARTS AT HULL-HOUSE 


357 

)00. The peasants who portrayed exactly the suc- 
ssive scenes of the wonderful Life, who used only the 
:ry words found in the accepted version of the Gospels, 
:t curiously modernized and reorientated the message, 
bey made clear that the opposition to the young 
sacher sprang from the merchants whose traffic in the 
mple He had disturbed and from the Pharisees who 
hre dependent upon them for support. Their query 
’as curiously familiar, as they demanded the ante- 
i dents of the Radical who dared to touch vested inter- 
< ts, who presumed to dictate the morality of trade, 
nd who insulted,the marts of honest merchants by 
t lling them “ a den of thieves. ” As the play developed, 
became clear that this powerful opposition had 
lends in Church and State, that they controlled in- 
lences which ramified in all directions. They obvious- 
believed in their statement of the case and their very 
ealth and position in the community gave their words 
ch weight that finally all of their hearers were con- 
nced that the young Agitator must be done away 
ith in order that the highest interests of society might 
» conserved. These simple peasants made it clear that 
was the money power which induced one of the 
^itator’s closest friends to betray him, and the villain 
the piece, Judas himself, was only a man who was so 
tzzled by money, so under the domination of all it 
[presented, that he was perpetually blind to the 
iritual vision unrolling before him. As I sat through 


I o 


I 5 


2 O 


k b 


2 5 









358 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

the long summer day, seeing the shadows on the beau 
ful mountain back of the open stage shift from one si 
to the other and finally grow long and pointed in t 
soft evening light, my mind was filled with perplexi.i 
5 questions. Did the dramatization of the life of Jes 
set forth its meaning more clearly and conclusive 
than talking and preaching could possibly do as' 
shadowy following of the command “to do the will’ 

I he peasant actors whom I had seen returning fro 
i o mass that morning had prayed only to portray the li 
as He had lived it and, behold, out of their simplicity 
and piety arose this modern version which even Harnac 
was only then venturing to suggest to his advance, 
colleagues in Berlin. \ et the Oberammergau folk wei 
15 very like thousands of immigrant men and women <j 
Chicago, both in their experiences and in their familiar 
ty with the hard facts of life, and throughout that da 
as my mind dwelt on my far-away neighbors, I was n 
proached with the sense of an ungarnered harvest. 

20 Of course such a generally uplifted state comes on) 
at rare moments, while the development of the littl 
theater at Hull-House has not depended upon th 
moods of any one, but upon the genuine enthusiast)" 
and sustained effort of a group of residents, several o ? 
2s them artists who have ungrudgingly given their time! 
to it yeai after year. I his group has long fosteret 
junior dramatic associations, through which it seem 
possible to give a training in manners and morals mor< 







ARTS AT HULL-HOUSE 


359 


irectly than through any other medium. They have 
irned to determine very cleverly the ages at which 
rious types of the drama are most congruous and 
pressive of the sentiments of the little troupes, from 
e fairy plays, such as “Snow-White” and “ Puss-in- 
>ots,” which appeal to the youngest children, to the 
roic plays of “William Tell,” “King John,” and 
-Vat Tyler” for the older lads, and to the romances 
d comedies which set forth in stately fashion the 
jiborated life which so many young people admire. A 
joup of Jewish boys gave a dramatic version of the 
)ry of Joseph and his brethren and again of Queen 
ither. They had almost a sense of proprietorship in 
e fine old lines and were pleased to bring from home 
Its of Talmudic lore 0 for the stage setting. The same 
; ib of boys at one time will buoyantly give a roaring 
Lmedy and five years later will solemnly demand a 
5ama dealing with modern industrial conditions. The 
iull-House theater is also rented from time to time to 
Lmbers of the Young People’s Socialist League, who 
ve plays both in Yiddish and English which reduce 
heir propaganda to conversation, through such hum- 
s experiments as the Hull-House stage, as well as 
trough the more ambitious reforms which are at- 
Impted in various parts of the country, the theater 
Lay at last be restored to its rightful place in the coin- 
unity. 

[There have been times when our little stage was able 








360 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

to serve the theatre libre. A Chicago troupe, finding 
difficult to break into a trust theater, used it one wint< 
twice a week for the presentation of Ibsen 0 and ol 
French comedy. A visit from the Irish poet Yeats 0 ii 
5 spired us to do our share toward freeing the stage froi 
its slavery to expensive scene setting, and a forest o 
stiff conventional trees against a gilt sky still remair 
with us as a reminder of an attempt, not wholly unsu< 
cessful, in this direction. 

o 1 his group of Hull-House artists have filled our littl 
foyer with a series of charming playbills and by dint c 
painting their own scenery and making their ow 
costumes have obtained beguiling results in stag 
setting. Sometimes all the artistic resources of th 
s House unite in a Wagnerian combination 0 ; thus th 
text of the “ Trolfs Holiday’’ was written by on 
resident, set to music by another; sung by the Musi 
School, and placed upon the stage under the carefu 
direction and training of the dramatic committee; an 
othe little brown trolls could never have tumbled abou 
so gracefully in their gleaming caves unless they ha 
been taught in the gymnasium. 

Some such synthesis takes place every year at th 
Hull-House annual exhibition, when an effort is mad 
s to bring together in a spirit of holiday the nine thousan 
people who come to the House every week during dulle 
times. Curiously enough the central feature at th 
annual exhibition seems to be the brass band of th« 






ARTS AT HULL-HOUSE 361 

! ys’ club which apparently dominates the situation by 
ser size and noise, but perhaps their fresh boyish en- 
jsiasm expresses that which the older people take 
ore soberly. 

I As the stage of our little theater had attempted to s 
rtray the heroes of many lands, so we planned one 
*ly spring seven years ago, to carry out a scheme of 
iral decoration upon the walls of the theater itself, 
ich should portray those cosmopolitan heroes who 
ve become great through identification with the com- 10 
bn lot, in preference to the heroes of mere achieve- 
r nt. In addition to the group of artists living at Hull- 
buse several others were in temporary residence, and 
hy all threw themselves enthusiastically into the 
In. I he series began with Tolstoy plowing his field, is 
nch was painted by an artist of the Glasgow school, 

I I the next was of the young Lincoln pushing his flat- 
it down the Mississippi River at the moment he re- 
ved his first impression of the “great iniquity.” 
is was done by a promising young artist of Chicago 20 
|i the wall spaces nearest to the two selected heroes 
Ire quickly filled with their immortal sayings. 

K spirited discussion thereupon ensued in regard to 
I: heroes for the two remaining large wall spaces, 
fen to the surprise of all of us the group of twenty- 2 5 
[i residents who had lived in unbroken harmony for 
Ire than ten years, suddenly broke up into cults and 
1 n camps of hero worship. Each cult exhibited draw- 







362 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

ings of its own hero in his most heroic moment, and 
course each drawing received enthusiastic backing frc 
the neighborhood, each according to the nationality 
the hero. Ihus Phidias 0 standing high on his scaffif 
5 as he finished the heroic head of Athene; the you 
David 0 dreamily playing his harp as he tended 1 
father’s sheep at Bethlehem; St. Francis 0 washing t 
feet of the leper; the young slave Patrick 0 guiding 1 
master through the bogs of Ireland, which he later i 
ioof their dangers; the poet Hans Sachs 0 cobbling shot 
Jeanne d’Arc° dropping her spindle in startled wond 
before the heavenly visitants, naturally all obtain 
such enthusiastic following from our cosmopolit; 
neighborhood that it was certain to give offense if ai 
15 two were selected. T hen there was the cult of residen 
who wished to keep the series contemporaneous wi 
the two heroes already painted, and they advocatV 
William Morris 0 at his loom, Walt Whitman 0 trampii 
the open road, Pasteur 0 in his laboratory, or Floren 
20 Nightingale 0 seeking the wounded on the field of battl 
But beyond the socialists, few of the neighbors h; 
heard of William Morris, and the fame of Walt Whi 
man was still more apocryphal; Pasteur was co 
sidered merely a clever scientist without the romam 
2 s which evokes popular affection, and in the provision 
drawing submitted for votes, gentle Florence Nightii 
gale was said “to look more as if she were robbing tl 
dead than succoring the wounded.” The remark shov 


ARTS AT HULL-HOUSE 363 

ow high the feeling ran, and then, as something must 
e done quickly, we tried to unite upon strictly local 
eroes, such as the famous fire marshal who had lived 
>r many years in our neighborhood — hut why pro¬ 
ng this description which demonstrates once more 5 
pat art, if not always the handmaid of religion, yet 
sists upon serving those deeper sentiments for which 
e unexpectedly find ourselves ready to fight? When 
e were all fatigued and hopeless of compromise, we 
>ok refuge in a series of landscapes connected with our 10 
vo heroes by a quotation from Wordsworth slightly 
storted to meet our dire need, but still stating his im- 
issioned belief in the efficacious spirit capable of com- 
mionship with man which resides in “particular 
>ots.” Certainly peace emanates from the particular is 
Iding of the hills in one of our treasured mural land- 
apes, yet occasionally when a guest with a bewildered 
r looks from one side of the theater to the other, we 
*e forced to conclude that the connection is not con- 
ncing. 2 o 

In spite of its stormy career this attempt at mural 
acoration connects itself quite naturally with the spirit 
our earlier efforts to make Hull-House as beautiful 
; we could, which had in it a desire to embody in the 
itward aspect of the House something of the rem- 25 
iscence and aspiration of the neighborhood life. 

As the House enlarged for new needs and mellowed 
trough slow-growing associations, we endeavored to 






364 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

fashion it from without, as it were, as well as fro 
within. A tiny wall fountain modeled in classic patter 
for us penetrates into the world of the past, but for t 
Italian immigrant it may defy distance and barriers 
5 he dimly responds to that typical beauty in which Ita 
has ever written its message, even as classic art kne 
no region of the gods which was not also sensuous, ar 
as the art of Dante 0 mysteriously blended the materi 
and the spiritual. 

10 Perhaps the early devotion of the Hull-House re.< 
dents to the pre-Raphaelites° recognized that the 
above all English speaking poets and painters reve 
“the sense of the expressiveness of outward things 
which is at once the glory and the limitation of the art 



CHAPTER XVII 

Echoes of the Russian Revolution 

The residents of Hull-House have always seen many 
vidences of the Russian Revolution; a forlorn family 
f little children whose parents have been massacred at 
Jshinev 0 are received and supported by their relatives 
1 our Chicago neighborhood; or a Russian woman, her 
ice streaming with tears of indignation and pity, asks 
ou to look at the scarred back of her sister, a young 
irl, who has escaped with her life from the whips of 
le Cossack soldiers; or a studious young woman sud- 
enly disappears from the Hull-House classes because 
ie has returned to Kiev to be near her brother while 
e is in prison, that she may earn money for the nour- 
hing food which alone will keep him from contracting 
iberculosis; or we attend a protest meeting against the 
ewest outrages of the Russian government in which 
ie speeches are interrupted by the groans of those 
hose sons have been sacrificed and by the hisses of 
thers who cannot repress their indignation. At such 
loments an American is acutely conscious of our 
;norance of this greatest tragedy of modern times, and 
t our indifference to the waste of perhaps the noblest 
uman material among our contemporaries. Certain it 

365 





366 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

is, as the distinguished Russian revolutionists have con 
to Chicago, they have impressed me, as no one else ev 
has done, as belonging to that noble company J 
martyrs who have ever and again poured forth bloc 
5 that human progress might be advanced. Sometime 
these men and women have addressed audienc< 
gathered quite outside the Russian colony and hav 
filled to overflowing Chicago’s largest halls wit 
American citizens, deeply touched by this message ( 
o martyrdom. One significant meeting was addressed b 
a member of the Russian Duma 0 and by one of Russia 
oldest and sanest revolutionists; another by Madam 
Breshkovsky, 0 who later languished a prisoner in th 
fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul. 0 
s In this wonderful procession of revolutionists, Princ 
Kropotkin, 0 or, as he prefers to be called, Peter Kropot 
km, was doubtless the most distinguished. When h 
came to America to lecture, he was heard throughou 
the country with great interest and respect; that he wa 
0 a guest of Hull-House during his stay in Chicago at 
tracted little attention at the time, but two years later 
when the assassination of President McKinley 0 oc 
curred, the visit of this kindly scholar, who had alway 
called himself an * anarchist” and had certainly written 
s fiery tracts in his younger manhood, was made the bash 
of an attack upon Hull-House b}^ a daily newspaper 
which ignored the fact that while Prince Kropotkir 
had addressed the Chicago Arts and Crafts Society at 







ECHOES OE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 367 

lull-House, giving a digest of his remarkable book on 
Fields, Factories, and Workshops,” he had also 
poken at the State Universities of Illinois and Wis- 
onsin and before the leading literary and scientific 
ocieties of Chicago. These institutions and societies 
vere not, therefore, called anarchistic. Hull-House had 
oubtless laid itself open to this attack through an in- 
ident connected with the imprisonment of the editor 
f an anarchistic paper, who was arrested in Chicago 
nmediately after the assassination of President 
1 TcKinley. In the excitement following the national 
alamity and the avowal by the assassin of the influence 
f the anarchistic lecture to which he had listened, ar- 
ests were made in Chicago of every one suspected of 
narchy, in the belief that a widespread plot would be 
ncovered. The editor’s house was searched for in- 
riminating literature, his wife and daughter taken to a 
'olice station, and his son and himself, with several 
ther suspected anarchists, were placed in the disused 
ells in the basement of the city hall. 

It is impossible to overstate the public excitement of 

I he moment and the unfathomable sense of horror with 
which the community regarded an attack upon the 
hief executive of the nation, as a crime against govern- 
lent itself which compels an instinctive recoil from all 
iw-abiding citizens. Doubtless both the horror and 
ecoil have their roots deep down in human expenence; 
he earliest forms of government implied a group which 





368 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

offered competent resistance to outsiders, but assumir 
no protection was necessary between any two of i 
own members, promptly punished with death tf 
traitor who had assaulted any one within. An ai 
5 archistic attack against an official thus furnishes a 
accredited basis both for unreasoning hatred and fc 
prompt punishment. Both the hatred and the detei 
mination to punish reached the highest pitch in Chicag 
after the assassination of President McKinley, and th 
xo group of wretched men detained in the old-fashionec 
scarcely habitable cells, had not the least idea of thei 
ultimate fate. They were not allowed to see an attorne 
and were kept “in communicado” as their excite< 
friends called it. I had seen the editor and his famih 
1 5 only during Prince Kropotkin’s stay at Hull-House 
when they had come to visit him several times. Th< 
editor had impressed me as a quiet, scholarly man, chal 
lenging the social order by the philosophic touchstom 
of Bakunin 0 and of Herbert Spencer, somewhat startlec 
20 by the radicalism of his fiery young son and much com 
forted by the German domesticity of his wife ant 
daughter. Perhaps it was but my hysterical symptorr 
of the universal excitement, but it certainly seemed tc 
me more than I could bear when a group of his in- 
2 S dividualistic friends, who had come to ask for help, 
said: “You see what becomes of your boasted law; the 
authorities won t even allow an attorney, nor will they 
accept bail for these men, against whom nothing can 


ECHOES OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 369 

ie proved, although the veriest criminals are not denied 
uch a right.” Challenged by an anarchist, one is al¬ 
ways sensitive for the honor of legally constituted 
aciety, and I replied that of course the men could have 
n attorney, that the assassin himself would eventually 5 
e furnished with one, that the fact that a man was an 
narchist had nothing to do with his rights before the 
iw! I'was met with the retort that that might do for 
theory, but that the fact still remained that these men 
ad been absolutely isolated, seeing no one but police- 10 
ien, who constantly frightened them with tales of 
ublic clamor and threatened lynching. 

This conversation took place on Saturday night and, 
s the final police authority rests in the mayor, with a 
riend who was equally disturbed over the situation, I 15 
epaired to his house on Sunday morning to appeal to 
im in the interest of a law and order that should not 
ield to panic. We contended that to the anarchist 
hove all men it must be demonstrated that law is im- 
artial and stands the test of every strain. The mayor 20 
eard us through with the ready sympathy of the 
uccessful politician. He insisted, however, that the 
aen thus far had merely been properly protected 
gainst lynching, but that it might now be safe to allow 
hem to see some one; he would not yet, however, take 25 
he responsibility of permitting an attorney, but it I 
nyself chose to see them on the humanitarian errand 
■if an assurance of fair play, he would wnte me a permit 



370 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

at once. I promptly fell into the trap, if trap it wa 
and within half an hour was in a corridor in the city ha 
basement, talking to the distracted editor and su 
rounded by a cordon of police, who assured me that 
s was not safe to permit him out of his cell. The edito 
who had grown thin and haggard under his suspens< 
asked immediately as to the whereabouts of his wif 
and daughter, concerning whom he had heard not 
word since he had seen them arrested. Gradually h 

1 o became composed as he learned, not that his testimon 

had been believed to the effect that he had never see 
the assassin but once, and had then considered him 
foolish half-witted creature, but that the most thorough 
going “dragnet’ investigations on the part of th 
15 united police of the country had failed to discover . 
plot and that the public was gradually becoming con 
\mced that the dastardly act was that of a solitar 
man with no political or social affiliations. 

The entire conversation was simple and did not seen 
20 to me unlike, in motive or character, interviews I hac 
had with many another forlorn man who had fallen intc 
prison. I had scarce returned to Hull-House, however 
before it was filled with reporters, and I at once dis 
covered that whether or not I had helped a brother oui 

2 s of a pit, I had fallen into a deep one myself. A period o: 

sharp public opprobrium followed, traces of which, 1 
suppose, will always remain. And yet, in the midst of 
the letters of protest and accusation which made my 


ECHOES OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 371 

tail a horror every morning, came a few letters of an¬ 
ther sort, one from a federal judge whom I had never 
^en and another from a distinguished professor in con- 
itutional law, who congratulated me on what they 
irmed a sane attempt to uphold the law in time of 
anic. 

Although one or two ardent young people rushed into 
rint to defend me from the charge of “abetting 
narchy,” it seemed to me at the time that mere words 
ould not avail. I had felt that the protection of the 
iw itself, extended to the most unpopular citizen, was 
le only reply to the anarchistic argument, to the effect 
lat this moment of panic revealed the truth of their 
teory of government; that the custodians of law and 
rder have become the government itself quite as the 
rmed men hired by the medieval guilds to protect them 
1 the peaceful pursuit of their avocations, through 
leer possession of arms finally made themselves rulers 
f the city. At that moment I was firmly convinced 
I nat the public could only be convicted of the blindness 
fits course, when a body of people with a hundred-fold 
1 f the moral energy possessed by a Settlement group, 
Ifiould make clear that there is no method by which 
, ny community can be guarded against sporadic efforts 
n the part of half-crazed, discouraged men, save by a 
I ense of mutual rights and securities which will include 
Lhe veriest outcast. 

It seemed to me then that in the millions of words 



372 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

uttered and written at that time, no one adequate 
uiged that public-spirited citizens set themselves ti 
task of patiently discovering how these sporadic acts 
violence against government may be understood ar 
5 averted. We do not know whether they occur amor 
the discouraged and unassimilated immigrants, wb 
might be cared for in such a way as enormously to lesse 
the probability of these acts, or whether they are tf 
result of anarchistic teaching. By hastily concludin 
i o that the latter is the sole explanation for them, we mak 
no attempt to heal and cure the situation. Failure t 
make a proper diagnosis may mean treatment of 
disease which does not exist, or it may furthermor 
mean that the dire malady from which the patient i 
15 suffering be permitted to develop unchecked. And ye 
as the details of the meager life of the President’s as; 
sassin were disclosed, they were a challenge to the force 
for social betterment in American cities. Was it not ai 
indictment to all those whose business it is to interpre 
2 ° and. solace the wretched, that a boy should have growr 
up in an American city so uncared for, so untouched by 
higher issues, his wounds of life so unhealed by religion 
that the first talk he ever heard dealing with life’s 
wrongs, although anarchistic and violent, should yet 
2 5 appear to point a way of relief? 

The conviction that a sense of fellowship is the only 
implement which will break into the locked purpose of 







ECHOES OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 373 

half-crazed creature bent upon destruction in the 
ime of justice, came to me through an experience re¬ 
tted to me at this time by an old anarchist. 

He was a German cobbler who, through all the chang- 
in the manufacturing of shoes, had steadily clung to 
s little shop on a Chicago thoroughfare, partly as an 
pression of his individualism and partly because he 
eferred bitter poverty in a place of his own to good 
’ages under a disciplinary foreman. The assassin of 
resident McKinley, on his way through Chicago only 
few days before he committed his dastardly deed, had 
sited all the anarchists whom he could find in the 
cy, asking them for “the password” as he called it. 
Hey, of course, possessed no such thing, and had 
1 rned him away, some with disgust and all with a 
< rtain degree of impatience, as a type of the ill- 
hlanced man who, as they put it, was always “hang- 
ig around the movement, without the slightest con- 
(ption of its meaning.” Among other people, he 
’sited the German cobbler, who treated him much as 
1 e others had done, but who, after the event had made 
ear the identity of his visitor, was filled with the most 
Itter remorse that he had failed to utilize his chance 
leeting with the assassin to deter him from his purpose, 
je knew as well as any psychologist who has read the 
1 story of such solitary men that the only possible way 
1 break down such a persistent and secretive purpose 






374 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

was by the kindliness which might have induced co 
fession, which might have restored the future assass 
into fellowship with normal men. 

In the midst of his remorse, the cobbler told me a ta 
5 of his own youth; that years before, when an ardei 
young fellow in Germany, newly converted to tl 
philosophy of anarchism, as he called it, he had mac 
up his mind that the Church, as much as the State, w; 
responsible for human oppression, and that this fae 
iocould best he set forth in the deed” by the publi 
destruction of a clergyman or priest; that he had carrie 
firearms for a year with this purpose in mind, but tha 
one pleasant summer evening, in a moment of weaknes: 
he had confided his intention to a friend, and that fror 
x 5 that moment he not only lost all desire to carry it oui 
but it seemed to him the most preposterous thin 
imaginable. In concluding the story he said: “Tha 
poor fellow sat just beside me on my bench; if I ha. 
only put my hand on his shoulder and said, ‘Now, lool 
2ohere, brother, what is on your mind? What makes yoi 
talk such nonsense? Tell me. I have seen much of life 
and understand all kinds of men. I have been younj 
and hot-headed and foolish myself’; if he had told me o 
his puipose then and there, he would never have carriet 
2 s it out. 1 he whole nation would have been spared thi: 
honor. As he concluded he shook his gray head anc 
sighed as if the whole incident were more than he coulc 
heai one of those terrible sins of omission; one of the 


ECHOES OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 375 

ings he “ought to have done,” the memory of which 
so hard to endure. 

The attempt a Settlement makes to interpret Ameri- 
n institutions to those who are bewildered concerning 
em, either because of their personal experiences or 
hcause of preconceived theories, would seem to lie in 
e direct path of its public obligation, and yet it is 
»parently impossible for the overwrought community 
distinguish between the excitement the Settlements 
e endeavoring to understand and to allay and the 
titude of the Settlement itself. At times of public 
mic, fervid denunciation is held to be the duty of 
1 ery good citizen, and if a Settlement is convinced that 
e incident should be used to vindicate the law and 
ues not at the moment give its strength to denuncia- 
nn, its attitude is at once taken to imply a champion- 
: ip of anarchy itself. 

The public mind at such a moment falls into the old 
edieval confusion — he who feeds or shelters a heretic 
upon prima facie 0 evidence a heretic himself—he 
iio knows intimately people among whom anarchists 
;ise, is therefore an anarchist. I personally am con- 
nced that anarchy as a philosophy is dying down, not 
(dy in Chicago, but everywhere; that their leading 
1 gans have discontinued publication, and that their 
ost eminent men in America have deserted them, 
ven those groups which have continued to meet are 
ividing, and the major half in almost every instance 





'Ol 


376 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


calls itself socialist-anarchists, an apparent conti- 
diction of terms, whose members insist that the soci;« 
istic organization of society must be the next stage ’ 
social development and must be gone through with, , 
s to speak, before the ideal state of society can be reache, 
so nearly begging the question that some orthod^ 
socialists are willing to recognize them. It is certain* 
true that just because anarchy questions the vei 
foundations of society, the most elemental sense of pr 
iotection demands that the method of meeting the cha 
lenge should be intelligently considered. 


T 5 


2 o 


Whether or not Hull-House has accomplished ami 
thing by its method of meeting such a situation, or ; 
least attempting to treat it in a way which will m 
destroy confidence in the American institutions .< 
adored by refugees from foreign governmental on 
pression, it is of course impossible for me to say. 

And yet it was in connection with an effort to purse] 
an intelligent policy in regard to a so-called “ foreign 
anarchist” that Hull-House again became associatei 
with that creed six years later. This again was an ech 
of the Russian revolution, but in connection with on f 
of its humblest representatives. A young Russian Je^ 
named Averbuch appeared in the early morning at th 
house of the Chicago chief of police upon an obscur 
errand. It was a moment of panic everywhere in regan 
to anarchists because of a recent murder in Denve 
which had been charged to an Italian anarchist, am 




ECHOES OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 377 

e chief of police, assuming that the dark young man 
anding in his hallway was an anarchist bent upon his 
;sassination, hastily called for help. In a panic born 
‘ fear and self-defense, young Averbuch was shot to 
jath'. The members of the Russian-Jewish colony on 5 
le west side of Chicago were thrown into a state of m- 
:nse excitement as soon as the nationality of the young 
ian became known. They were filled with dark tore- 
odings from a swift prescience of what it would mean 
) them were the odium of anarchy rightly or wrongly 1 o 
ttached to one of their members. It seemed to the 
isidents of Hull-House most important that every 
Tort should be made to ascertain just what did happen, 
lat every means of securing information should be ex- 
austed before a final opinion should be formed,, and 15 
his odium fastened upon a colony of law-abiding 
itizens. The police might be right or wrong in their as- 
ertion that the man was an anarchist. It was, to our 
linds, also most unfortunate that the Chicago police 

I the determination to uncover an anarchistic plot 20 
hould have utilized the most drastic methods of search 
ivithin the Russian-Jewish colony, composed of families 
inly too familiar with the methods of the Russian 
>olice. Therefore, when the Chicago police ransacked 

II the printing offices they could locate in the colony, 25 
vhen they raided a restaurant which they regarded as 
uspicious because it had been supplying food at cost 

o the unemployed, when they searched through private 



378 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

houses for papers and photographs of revolutionarf, 
when they seized the library of the Edelstadt group 0 ai| 
carried the books, including Shakespeare and Herbe: 
Spencei, to the city hall, when they arrested two frien 
s of young Averbuch and kept them in the police sfatii 
forty-eight hours, when they mercilessly “sweated” t! 
sister, Olga, that she might be startled into a co; 
fession all these things so poignantly reminded the 
of Russian methods, that indignation, fed both by ol 
i o memory and bitter disappointment in America, swej 
over the entire colony. The older men asked wheth( 
constitutional rights gave no guarantee against sue 
violent aggression of police power, and the hot-heade 
\ounger ones cued out at once that the only way to de; 
i s with the police was to defy them, which was true c 
police the world over. It was said many times tha 
those who are without influence and protection in j 
strange country fare exactly as hard as do the poor ii 
Europe; that all the talk of guaranteed protectioi 
20 through political institutions is nonsense. 

Every Settlement has classes in citizenship in whici 
the principles of American institutions are expounds 
and of these the community, as a whole, approves. Bu 
the Settlements know better than any one else that 
25 while these classes and lectures are useful, nothing car 
possibly give lessons in citizenship so effectively anc 
make so clear the constitutional basis of a self-governing 
community as the current event itself. The treatment 




ECHOES OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 379 

t a given moment of that foreign colony which feels 
tself outraged and misunderstood, either makes its 
constitutional rights clear to it, or forever confuses it 
>n the subject. 

The only method by which a reasonable and loyal 5 
onception of government may be substituted lor the 
me formed upon Russian experiences, is that the actual 
‘xpenence of refugees with government in America 
;hall gradually demonstrate what a very different thing 
rovernment means here. Such an event as the Aver- 1 o 
mch affair affords an unprecedented opportunity to 
nake clear this difference and to demonstrate beyond 
he possibility of misunderstanding that the guarantee 
if constitutional rights implies that officialism shall be 
-estrained and guarded at every point, that the official 15 
epresents, not the will of a small administrative body, 

3ut the will of the entire people, and that methods 
zherefore have been constituted by which official ag¬ 
gression may be restrained, lhe Averbuch incident 
>ave an opportunity to demonstrate this to that very 2 o 
body of people who need it most: to those who have 
lived in Russia where autocratic officers represent 
autocratic power and where government is officialism. 

It seemed to the residents in the Settlements nearest 
the Russian-Jewish colony that it was an obvious piece 2 5 
of public spirit to try out all the legal value involved, to 
insist that American institutions were stout enough not 
to break down in times of stress and public panic. 

' 





380 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


The belief of many Russians that the Averbu 
incident would be made a prelude to the constant u 
of the extradition treaty for the sake of terrorizir 
revolutionists both at home and abroad, received 
sceitain corroboration when an attempt was made i 
190.X to extradite a Russian revolutionist named Rud< 
vitz who was living in Chicago. The first hearing before 
United States Commissioner gave a verdict favorabl 
to the Russian Government although this was aftei 
1 o wards reversed by the Department of State in Wash 
mgton. Partly to educate American sentiment, parti- 
to express sympathy with the Russian refugees in thei 
dire need, a series of public meetings was arranged ir 
which the operations of the extradition treaty wen 
.5 discussed by many of us who had spoken at a meetim 
ield in protest against its ratification fifteen years be- 
fore It is impossible for any one unacquainted wit 
the Russian colony to realize the consternation pr 
duced by this attempted extradition. I acted as 
3 ° treasurer of the fund collected to defray the expenses 
O Tails and printing m the campaign against the policy 
of extradition and had many opportunities to talk with 
members of the colony. One old man, tearing his hair 
and beard as he spoke, declared that all his sons and 
2 5grandsons might thus be sent back to Russia; in fact 
all of the younger men in the colony might be extra¬ 
dited, tor every high-spirited young Russian was, in a 
sense, a revolutionist. 


- I 













ECHOES OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 381 

Would it not provoke to ironic laughter that very 
‘ nemesis which presides over the destinies of nations, if 
the most autocratic government yet remaining in 
civilization should succeed in utilizing for its own 
1 autocratic methods the youngest and most daring ex¬ 
periment in democratic government which the world 
has eyer seen? Stranger results have followed a course 
of stupidity and injustice resulting from blindness and 
panic! 

It is certainly true that if the decision of the federal 
office in Chicago had not been reversed by the depart¬ 
ment of state in Washington, the United States govern¬ 
ment would have been committed to return thousands 
of spirited young refugees to the punishments of the 
Russian autocracy. 

It was perhaps significant of our need of what 
Napoleon called a “revival of civic morals” that the 
public appeal against such a reversal of our traditions 
had to be based largely upon the contributions to 
American progress made from other revolutions: the 
Puritans 0 from the English, Lafayette 0 from the 
French, Carl Schurz 0 and many another able man from 
the German upheavals in the middle of the century. 

A distinguished German scholar, writing at the end 
of his long life a description of his friends of 1848 who 
made a gallant although premature effort to unite the 
German states and to secure a constitutional govern¬ 
ment, thus concludes: “But not a few saw the whole 





382 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

of their lives wrecked, either in prison or poverty 
though they had done no wrong, and in many case 
were the finest characters it has been my good fortun 
to know. They were before their time; the fruit wa 
5 not ripe, as it was in 1871, and Germany but lost he 
best sons in those miserable years. ” When the time i 
ripe in Russia, when she finally yields to those grea 
forces which are molding and renovating contemporar 
life, when her Cavour and her Bismarck 0 finally thro\ 
ointo the first governmental forms all that yearning fo 
juster human relations which the idealistic Russiai 
revolutionists embody, we may look back upon thesi 
“miserable years” with a sense of chagrin at our lacl 
of sympathy and understanding, 
s Again it is far from easy to comprehend the grea 
Russian struggle. I recall a visit from the famou: 
revolutionist Gershuni, who had escaped from Siberia 
in a barrel of cabbage rolled under the very fortress o 
the commandant himself, had made his way through 
o Manchuria and China to San Francisco, and on his wa}] 
back to Russia had stopped in Chicago for a few days 
I hree months later we heard of his death, and whenevei 
I recall the conversation held with him, I find it in¬ 
vested with that dignity which last words imply. Upon 
5 the request of a comrade Gershuni had repeated the 
substance of the famous speech he had made to the 
court which sentenced him to Siberia. As representing 
the government against which he had rebelled he told 





ECHOES OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 383 

he court that he might in time be able to forgive all of 
heir outrages and injustices save one: the unforgivable 
mtrage would remain that hundreds of men like him¬ 
self, who were vegetarians because they were not willing 
o participate in the destruction of living creatures, who 
lad never struck a child even in punishment, who were 
,0 consumed with tenderness for the outcast and op- 
)ressed that they had lived for weeks among starving 
leasants only that they might cheer and solace them 
hat these men should have been driven into terrorism, 
mtil impelled to “execute,” as they call it assas¬ 
sinate” the Anglo-Saxon would term it — public offi- 
:ials, was something for which he would never forgive 
he Russian government. It was, perhaps, the heat of 
he argument, as much as conviction, which led me to 
•eply that it would be equally difficult for society to 
orgive these very revolutionists for one thing they had 
lone, their institution of the use of force in such wise 
hat it would inevitably be imitated by men of less 
scruple and restraint; that to have revived such a 
nethod in civilization, to have justified it by their 
iisinterestedness of purpose and nobility ot chaiacter, 
vas perhaps the gravest responsibility that any group 
if men could assume. With a smile of indulgent pity 
such as one might grant to a mistaken child, he replied 
that such Tolstoyan principles were as fitted to Russia 
as “these toilettes,” pointing to the thin summer gowns 
if his listeners, “were fitted to a Siberian winter. 





384 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

And yet I held the belief then, as I certainly do no^ 
that when the sense of justice seeks to express itse 
quite outside the regular channels of established goveri 
ment, it has set forth on a dangerous journey inevitabl 
s ending in disaster, and that this is true in spite of tf 
fact that the adventure may have been inspired b 
noble motives. 

Still more perplexing than the use of force by th 
revolutionists is the employment of the agent-prc 
1 o vocateut on the part of the Russian government. Th 
visit of Vladimir Rourtzeff 0 to Chicago just after hi 
exposure of the famous secret agent, AzefF, filled on 
with perplexity in regard to a government which wouh 
connive at the violent death of a faithful official an. j 
is that of a member of the royal household for the sak 
of bringing opprobrium and punishment to the revolu j 
tiomsts and credit to the secret police. 

The Settlement has also suffered through its effor j 
to secure open discussion of the methods of the Russiai j 
20 government. During the excitement connected witl 
the visit of Gorki 0 to this country, three different com ] 
mittees came to Hull-House begging that I would s 
secure a statement in at least one of the Chicagcj 
dailies of their own view, that the agents of the Czai i 
-shad cleverly centered public attention upon Gorki’s?: 
private life and had fomented a scandal so successfully: 
that the object of Gorki’s visit to America had been] 
foiled; he who had known intimately the most wretched 




ECHOES OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 385 

>f the Czar’s subjects, who was best able to sym¬ 
pathetically portray their wretchedness, not only failed 
T 0 get a hearing before an American audience, but could 
Scarcely find the shelter of a roof. I told two of the 
Russian committees that it was hopeless to undertake 
i my explanation of the bitter attack until public excite- 
nent had somewhat subsided; but one Sunday after¬ 
noon when a third committee arrived, I said that I 
vould endeavor to have reprinted in a Chicago daily 
he few scattered articles written for the magazines 
1;which tried to explain the situation, one by the head 
1 professor in political economy of a leading univeisity, 
j md others by publicists well informed as to Russian 

1 iffairs. 

■ I hoped that a cosmopolitan newspaper might feel 
m obligation to recognize the desire for fair play on 
he part of thousands of its readers among the Russians, 
Poles, and Finns, at least to the extent of reproducing 
these magazine articles under a noncommittal caption. 
That same Sunday evening in company with one of the 
residents, I visited a newspaper office only to heat its 
representative say that my plan was quite out of the 
question, as the whole subject was what newspaper men 
called “a sacred cow. 5 ’ He said, however, that he 
would willingly print an article which I myself should 
1 write and sign. I declined this offer with the statement 
that one who had my opportunities to see the struggles 
of poor women in securing support for their children, 




386 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

found it impossible to write anything which wou 
however remotely justify the loosening of marria 
bonds, even if the defense of Gorki made by the Russi; 
committees was sound. We left the newspaper offi 
s somewhat discouraged with what we thought one mo 
unsuccessful effort to procure a hearing for the imm 
grants. 

I had considered the incident closed, when to m 
horror and surprise several months afterwards it w; 
i o made the basis of a story with every possible vicioi 
interpretation. One of the Chicago newspapers ha 
been indicted by Mayor Dunne for what he considere 
an actionable attack upon his appointees to the Chicag 
School Board of whom I was one, and the incident, er 
15 larged and coarsened, was submitted as evidence to th 
Grand Jury in regard to my views and influence. A 1 
though the evidence was thrown out, an attempt wa 
again made to revive this story by the managers c 
Mayor Dunne’s second campaign, this time to sho\ 
20how “the protector of fhe oppressed” was traduced 
I he incident is related here as an example of the cleve 
use of that old device which throws upon the radical ii 
religion, in education, and in social reform, the odiun 
of encouraging “harlots and sinners” and of defending 
2 5 their doctrines. 

If the under dog were always right, one might quit( 
easily try to defend him. I ne trouble is that very 
often he is hut obscurely right, sometimes only partially 



ECHOES OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 387 

ight, and often quite wrong; but perhaps he is never so 
iltogether wrong and pig-headed and utterly reprehen¬ 
sible as he is represented to be by those who add the 
possession of prejudices to the other almost insuperable 
lifficulties of understanding him. It was, perhaps, not 5 
surprising that with these excellent opportunities for 
nisjudging Hull-House, we should have suffered attack 
rom time to time whenever any untoward event gave 
an opening, as when an Italian immigrant murdered a 
priest in Denver, Colorado. Although the wretched man 1 
aad never been in Chicago, much less at Hull-House, a 
Chicago ecclesiastic asserted that he had learned hatred 
pf the Church as a member of the Giordano Bruno 0 
Club, an Italian Club, one of whose members lived at 
Tull-House, and which had occasionally met there, al- 1 
though it had long maintained clubrooms of its own. 
This club had its origin in the old struggles of united 
Italy against the temporal power of the Pope, one of the 
European echoes with which Chicago resounds. The 
Italian resident, as the editor of a paper representing 2 
new Italy, had come in sharp conflict with the Chicago 
ecclesiastic, first in regard to naming a public school of 
the vicinity after Garibaldi, which was of couise not 
tolerated by the Church, and then in regard to many 
another issue arising in anticlericahsm, which, although 2 
a political party, is constantly involved, from the very 
nature of the case, in theological difficulties. The con-^ 
test had been carried on with a bitterness impossible 






388 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

for an American to understand, but its origin ar 
implications were so obvious that it did not occur 
any of us that it could be associated with Hull-Houi . 
either in its motive or direction, 
s The ecclesiastic himself had lived for years in Rom 
and as I had often discussed the problems of Italia 
politics with him, I was quite sure he understood th 
raison d’etre for the Giordano Bruno Club. Fortunatel 
in the midst of the rhetorical attack, our friendly re I 
i olations remained unbroken with the neighboring priest j 
from whom we continued to receive uniform courtes 
as we cooperated in cases of sorrow and need. Hundred 
of devout communicants identified with the variou j 
Hull-House clubs and classes were deeply distresse i 
15 by the incident, but assured us it was all a misunder j 
standing. Easter came soon afterwards, and it was no 
difficult to make a connection between the attack anc; 
the myriad of Easter cards which filled my mail. 'i 
Thus a Settlement becomes involved in the man) . 
20 difficulties of its neighbors as its experiences make vivid 
the consciousness of modern internationalism. And: 
yet the very fact that the sense of reality is so keen and 
the obligation of the Settlement so obvious, may per¬ 
haps in itself explain the opposition Hull-House has 
2 s encountered when fit expressed its sympathy with the 
Russian revolution. We were much entertained, al¬ 
though somewhat ruefully, when a Chicago woman 
withdrew from us a large annual subscription because 












I 


ECHOES OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 389 

lull -House had defended a Russian refugee while she, 
dio had seen-much of the Russian aristocracy in 
urope, knew from them that all the revolutionary 
gitation was both unreasonable and unnecessary! 

It is, of course, impossible to say whether these op- 
ositions were inevitable or whether they were indica- 
ions that Hull-House had somehow bungled at its 
ask. Many times I have been driven to the confession 
f the blundering Amiel°: “It requires ability to make 
rhat we seem agree with what we are.” 


I o 









CHAPTER XVIII 

Socialized Education 

In a paper written years ago I deplored at sor; 
length the fact that educational matters are mo- 
democratic in their political than in their social aspe< | 
and I quote the following extract from it as throwii 
5 some light upon the earlier educational undertakin 
at Hull-House:— 

Teaching in a Settlement requires distinct methods, for it is true f 
people who have been allowed to remain undeveloped and wh ? 
faculties are inert and sterile, that they cannot take their learn : 

i o heavily. It has to be diffused in a social atmosphere, informat i 
must be held in solution, in a medium of fellowship and good will 

Intellectual life requires for its expansion and manifestation 
influence and assimilation of the interests and affections of othi, 
Mazzini, that greatest of all democrats, who broke his heart over t! 

1 5 condition of the South European peasantry, said: “ Education is i: 

merely a necessity of true life by which the individual renews 
vital force in the vital force of humanity; it is a Holy Communi 
with generations dead and living, by which he fecundates all 1 
faculties. \Vhen he is withheld from this Communion for generatio: 

2 o as the Italian peasant has been, we say, ‘He is like a beast of t 

field; he must be controlled by force.’” Even to this it is sometiir 
added that it is absurd to educate him, immoral to disturb his contei 
W e stupidly use the effect as an argument for a continuance of t 
cause. It is needless to say that a Settlement is a protest against ; 

2 s restricted view of education. 


390 







SOCIALIZED EDUCATION 


39i 


In line with this declaration, Hull-House in the very 
>eginning opened what we called College Extension 
Classes with a faculty finally numbering thirty-five 
ollege men and women, many of whom held their 
mpils for consecutive years. As these classes antedated 
in Chicago the University Extension and Normal Ex¬ 
tension classes and supplied a demand for stimulating 
construction, the attendance strained to their utmost 
capacity the spacious rooms in the old house. The 
gelation of students and faculty to each other and to 
he residents was that of guest and hostess and at the 
lose of each term the residents gave a reception to stu¬ 
dents and faculty which was one of the chief social 
4 vents of the season. Upon this comfortable social 
iasis some very good work was done. 

In connection with these classes a Hull-House stun¬ 
ner school was instituted at Rockford College, which 
?as most generously placed at our disposal by the 
rustees. f or ten years one hundred women gathered 
here for six weeks; in addition there were always men 
j n the faculty, and a small group of young men among 
he students, who were lodged in the gymnasium build- 
ng. The outdoor classes in bird study and botany, the 
erious reading of literary masterpieces, the boat ex- 
ursions on the Rock River, the cooperative spirit of 
loing the housework together, the satirical commence¬ 
ments in parti-colored caps and gowns, lent themselves 
oward a reproduction of the comradeship which college 
[fe fosters. 






392 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

As each member of the faculty, as well as the studen 
paid three dollars a week, and as we had little outlf 
beyond the actual cost of food, we easily defrayed or 
expenses. The undertaking was so simple and gratify 
sing in results that it might well be reproduced in ma]j 
college buildings which are set in the midst of beautill 
surroundings, unused during the two months of tY 
year, when hundreds of people, able to pay only k 
moderate price for lodgings in the country, can fii ^ 
i o nothing comfortable and no mental food more satisf i 
ing than piazza gossip. 

Every Thursday evening during the first years, 
public lecture came to be an expected event in tl j 
neighborhood, and Hull-House became one of the ear; i 

1 s University Extension centers, first in connection witj 

an independent society and later with the University <j 
Chicago. One of the Hull-House trustees was so irr<g 
pressed with the value of this orderly and continuot 
presentation of economic subjects that .he endowe 
20 three courses in a downtown center, in which thi 
lectures were free to any one who chose to come. Hi 
was much pleased that these lectures were largely at 
tended by workingmen who ordinarily prefer that a 
economic subject shall be presented by a partisan, an 

2 s who are supremely indifferent to examinations an 

credits. They also dislike the balancing of pro and co 
which scholarly instruction implies, and prefer to b 
inebriated on raw truth” rather than to sip a carefulb 
prepared draught of knowledge. 











SOCIALIZED EDUCATION 393 

| Nevertheless Bowen Hall, which seats seven hundred 
tod fifty people, is often none too large to hold the 
i jdiences of men who come to Hull-House every Sun¬ 
day evening during the winter to attend the illustrated 
l! ctures provided by the faculty of the University of 5 
hicago, and others who kindly give their services, 
hese courses differ enormously in their popularity: 
le on European capitals and their social significance 
’ as followed with the most vivid attention and sense 
■ participation indicated by groans and hisses when 10 
le audience was reminded of an unforgettable feud 
itween Austria and her Slavic subjects, or when they 
’ildly applauded a Polish hero, endeared through his 
f agic failure. 

In spite of the success of these Sunday evening 15 
curses, it has never been an easy undertaking to find 

I ceptable lecturers. A course of lectures on astronomy 
ustrated by stereopticon slides will attract a large 
lidience the first week, who hope to hear of the wonders 
the heavens and the relation of our earth thereto, 20 
it instead are treated to spectrum analyses of star 
1st, or the latest theory concerning the milky way. 
lie habit of research and the desire to say the latest 
K)rd upon any subject often overcomes the sym- 
f thetic understanding of his audience which the 25 
Lturer might otherwise develop, and he insensibly 
lops into the dull terminology of the classroom. 
Aere are, of course, notable exceptions; we had twelve 
furiously popular talks on organic evolution, but the 




394 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

lecturer was not yet a professor — merely a universi 
instructor — and his mind was still eager over t 
marvel of it all. Fortunately there is an increasi 
number of lecturers whose matter is so real, so definii 
sand so valuable, that in an attempt to give it an exa 
equivalence in words, they utilize the most direct fort 
of expression. 

It sometimes seems as if the men of substanti 
scholarship were content to leave to the charlatan t 
o teaching of those things which deeply concern tl 
welfare of mankind, and that the mass of men get tht 
intellectual food from the outcasts of scholarship, wl 
provide millions of books, pictures, and shows, not 
instruct and guide, but for the sake of their own financi 
5 profit. A Settlement soon discovers that simple peop 
are interested in large and vital subjects and the Hu 
House residents themselves at one time, with on 
partial success, undertook to give a series of lectur 
on the history of the world, beginning with the nebul 
o hypothesis and reaching Chicago itself in the twent 
fifth lecture! Absurd as the hasty review appears, the 
is no doubt that the beginner in knowledge is alwa^ 
eager for the general statement, as those wise old teacl 
ers of the people well knew, when they put the histor 
sof creation on the stage and the monks themselves b< 
came the actors. I recall that in planning my fir: 
European journey I had soberly hoped in two years t 
trace the entire pattern of human excellence as w 


SOCIALIZED EDUCATION 


395 

massed from one country to another, in the shrines popu- 
ar affection had consecrated to the saints, in the fre¬ 
quented statues erected to heroes, and in the “worn 
.dasonry of funeral brasses” — an illustration that 
vhen we are young we all long for those mountain tops 
ipon which we may soberly stand and dream of our 
iwn ephemeral and uncertain attempts at righteousness, 
have had many other illustrations of this; a statement 
vas recently made to me by a member of the Hull- 
douse Boys’ club, who had been unjustly arrested as 
in accomplice to a young thief and held in the police 
tation for three days, that during his detention he 
‘had remembered the way Jean Valjean 0 behaved 
Tien he was everlastingly pursued by that policeman 
To was only trying to do right”; “I kept seeing the 
tictures in that illustrated lecture you gave about him, 
nd I thought it would be queer if I couldn’t behave 
/ell for three days when he had kept it up for years.” 
The power of dramatic action may unfortunately be 
lustrated in other ways. During the weeks when all 
he daily papers were full of the details of a notorious 
lurder trial in New York and all the hideous events 
Tich preceded the crime, one evening I saw in the 
treet cars a knot of working girls leaning over a news- 
aper, admiring the clothes, the beauty, and “sorrow- 
j 1 expression” of the unhappy heroine. In the midst 
f the trial a woman whom I had known for years came 
o talk to me about her daughter, shamefacedly con- 





396 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

fessing that the girl was trying to dress and look like th 
notorious girl in New York, and that she had even sa. 
to her mother in a moment oi defiance, “Some day 
shall be taken into court and then I shall dress just I 
5 Evelyn did and face my accusers as she did in innocen: 
and beauty. ” 

If one makes calls on a Sunday afternoon in tJ: 
homes of the immigrant colonies near Hull-House, o; 
finds the family absorbed in the Sunday edition of 
o sensational daily newspaper, even those who cann 
read, quite easily following the comic adventures pc 
trayed in the colored pictures of the supplement 
tracing the clew of a murderer carefully depicted by 
black line drawn through a plan of the houses ai 
5 streets. 

Sometimes lessons in the great loyalties and -groi' 
affections come through life itself and yet in such 
manner that one cannot but deplore it. During t 
teamsters’ strike in Chicago several years ago wh 
o class bitterness rose to a dramatic climax, I remembj 
going to visit a neighborhood boy who had been severe 
injured when he had taken the place of a union driv^ 
upon a coal wagon. As I approached the house in whi 
he lived, a large group of boys and girls, some of the 
5 very little children, surrounded me to convey t 
exciting information that “Jack T. was a ‘scab,’” a 
that I couldn’t go in there. I explained to the excit 
children that his mother, who was a friend of mine, w 









SOCIALIZED EDUCATION 


397 


1 trouble, quite irrespective of the way her hoy had 
een hurt. The crowd around me outside of the house 
f the “scab” constantly grew larger and I, finally 
bandoning my attempt at explanation, walked in only 

> have the mother say: “Please don’t come here, 
oil will only get hurt, too. ” Of course I did not get 
urt, but the episode left upon my mind one of the most 
ainfuf impressions I have ever received in connection 
ith the children of the neighborhood. In addition to 
il else are the lessons of loyalty and comradeship to 
ome to them as the mere reversals of class antagonism ? 

nd yet it was but a trifling incident out of the general 
)irit of bitterness and strife which filled the city. 

Therefore the residents of Hull-House place increas- 
ig emphasis upon the great inspirations and solaces of 
terature and are unwilling that it should ever languish 

> a subject for class instruction or for reading parties, 
he Shakespeare club has lived a continuous existence 
t Hull-House for sixteen years during which time its 
iembers have heard the leading interpreters of Shake- 
>eare, both among scholars and players. I recall that 
le of its earliest members said that her mind was 
copied with Shakespeare characters during her long 
burs of sewing in a shop, that she couldn’t remember 
hat she thought about before she joined the club, and 
included that she hadn’t thought about anything at 
1. To feed the mind of the worker, to lift it above the 
onotony of his task, and to connect it with the larger 




I o 


I 5 


2 O 


2 5 


398 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

world, outside of his immediate surroundings, has 1 
ways been the object of art, perhaps never more no 
fulfilled than by the great English hard. Miss Starr 1 
held classes in Dante and Browning for many years a 
the great lines are conned with never failing enthusias 
I recall Miss Lathrop’s Plato club and an audience 
listened to a series of lectures by Dr. John Dewey 
“Social Psychology,” as genuine intellectual grot 
consisting largely of people from the immediate nei 
borhood, who were willing to make “that effort fr 
which we all shrink, the effort of thought.” But w 
we prize these classes as we do the help we are able 
give to the exceptional young man or woman who reac 
es the college and university and leaves the neighbc 
hood of his childhood behind him, the residents of Hu 
House feel increasingly that the educational efforts 
a Settlement should not he directed primarily to repi 
duce the college type of culture, but to work out 
method and an ideal adapted to the immediate situ 
tion. 1 hey feel that they should promote a cultu 
which will not set its possessor aside in a class wi 
others like himself, but which will, on the contrar 
connect him with all sorts of people by his ability 
understand them as well as by his power to suppleme 
their present surroundings with the historic bac 
ground. Among the hundreds of immigrants who ha 1 
for years attended classes at Hull-House design 
primarily to teach the English language, dozens 














SOCIALIZED EDUCATION 


399 


hem have struggled to express in the newly acquired 
' ongue some of those hopes and longings which had so 
nuch to do with their emigration. 

ir A series of plays was thus written by a young Bohe¬ 
mian; essays by a Russian youth, outpouring sorrows 5 
ivaling Werther 0 himself and yet containing the 
precious stuff of youth’s perennial revolt against ac¬ 
cepted wrong; stories of Russian oppression and petty 
njustices throughout which the desire for free America 
oecame a crystallized hope; an attempt to portray the 10 
Jewish day of Atonement, in such wise that even in¬ 
dividualistic Americans may catch a glimpse of that 
deeper national life which has survived all transplant- 
ng and expresses itself in forms so ancient that they 
ippear grotesque to the ignorant spectator. I remember 15 
1 pathetic effort on the part of a young Russian Jewess 
to describe the vivid inner hie ol an old 1 almud scholar, 
probably her uncle or father, as of one persistently oc- 
:upied with the grave and important things of the 
spirit, although when brought into sharp contact with 20 
busy and overworked people, he inevitably appeared 
self-absorbed and slothful. Certainly no one who had 
read her paper could again see such an old man in his 
praying shawl bent over his crabbed book, without a 

sense of understanding. 2 5 

On the other hand, one of the most pitiful periods 
in the drama of the much-praised young American who 
attempts to rise in life, is the time when his educational 



400 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

requirements seem to have locked him up and ma< 
him rigid. He fancies himself shut off from his u 
educated famdy and misunderstood by his friends, b 
is bowed down by his mental accumulations and oftt 
5 gets no farther than to carry them through life as 
great burden, and not once does he obtain a glimpse < 
the delights of knowledge. 

The teacher in a Settlement is constantly put upo 
lus mettle to discover methods of instruction whic 
i o shall make knowledge quickly available to his pupil 
and I should like here to pay my tribute of admiratio 
to the dean of our educational department, Miss Land* 
berg, and to the many men and women who ever 
winter come regularly to Hull-House, putting untirin 

1 s energy into the endless task of teaching the newly ai 

rived immigrant the first use of a language of which h 
has such desperate need. Even a meager knowledge o 
English may mean an opportunity to work in a factor 
versus nonemployment, or it may mean a question o 
20life or death when a sharp command must be under 
stood in order to avoid the danger of a descending crane 
In response to a demand for an education whicl 
should be immediately available, classes have beer 
established and grown apace in cooking, dressmaking 

2 s and millinery. A girl who attends them will often sa} 

that she expects to marry a workingman next spring,’ 
and because she has worked in a factory so long she 
knows little about a house.” Sometimes classes arc 


SOCIALIZED EDUCATION 


401 


:omposed of young matrons of like factory experiences. 

[ recall one of them whose husband had become so 
lesperate after two years of her unskilled cooking that 
ie had threatened to desert her and go where he could 
ret “decent food,” as she confided to me in a tearful 
nterview, when she followed my advice to take the 
Tull-House courses in cooking, and at the end of six 
nonths reported a united and happy home. 

- Two distinct trends are found in response to these 
rlasses: the first is for domestic training, and the other 
s for trade teaching which shall enable the poor little 
nilliner and dressmaker apprentices to shorten the two 
years of errand running which is supposed to teach them 
heir trade. 

The beginning of trade instruction has been already 
fivolved in connection with the Hull-House Boys’ club. 
[The ample Boys’ club building presented to Hull-House 
rhree years ago by one of our trustees has afforded well- 
bquipped shops for work in wood, iron, and brass; for 
hmithing in copper and tin; for commercial photography, 
'or printing, for telegraphy, and electrical construction. 

I These shops have been filled with boys who are eager 
; or that which seems to give them a clew to the in¬ 
dustrial life all about them. These classes meet twice a 
veek and are taught by intelligent workingmen, who 
ipparently give the boys what they want better than 
lo the strictly professional teachers. While these classes 
n no sense provide a trade training, they often enable a 




402 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


[ o 


boy to discover his aptitude and help him in the selei 
lion ol what he “wants to be” by reducing the trade 
to embryonic forms. I he factories are so complicate 
that the boy brought in contact with them, unless h 
5 has some preliminary preparation, is apt to become cor 
fused. In pedagogical terms, he loses his “power c 
oiderly reaction ’ and is often so discouraged or so over 
stimulated in his very first years of factory life that hi 
future usefulness is seriously impaired. 

One of Chicago’s most significant experiments in th 
direction of correlating the schools with actuaj industr 
was for several years carried on in a public school build 
ing situated near Hull-House, in which the bricklayer? 
appientices were taught eight hours a day in specia 
s classes during the non-bricklaying season. This earl 
public school venture anticipated the very successfu 
arrangement later carried on in Cincinnati, in Pittsburg 
and in Chicago itself, whereby a group of bovs at worl 
m a factory alternate month by month with anothe 
o group who are in school and are thus intelligently con 
ducted into the complicated processes of modern in 
dustry. But for a certain type of boy who has beei 
demoralized by the constant change and excitement o 
street life, even these apprenticeship classes are toi 
s strenuous, and he has to be lured into the path of know! 
edge by all sorts of appeals. 

It sometimes happens that boys are held in the Hull 
House classes for weeks by their desire for the excite 





SOCIALIZED EDUCATION 


403 


ient of placing burglar alarms under the door mats, 
ut to enable the possessor of even a little knowledge 
> thus play with it, is to decoy his feet at least through 
le first steps of the long, hard road of learning, al- 
lough even in this, the teacher must proceed warily. 5 
typical street boy who was utterly absorbed in a 
ood-carving class, abruptly left never to return when 
5 was told to use some simple calculations in the laying 
it of the points. He evidently scented the approach 
: his old enemy, arithmetic, and fled the field. On the 1 
:her hand, we have come across many cases in which 
ays have vainly tried to secure such opportunities for 
lemselves. During the trial of a boy of ten recently 
rrested for truancy, it developed that he had spent 
iany hours watching the electrical construction in a 1 
owntown building, and many others in the public 
brary “reading about electricity.” Another boy, who 
as taken from school early, when his father lost both 
f his legs in a factory accident, tried in vain to find a 
lace for himself “with machinery.” He was declared 2 
)o small for any such position, and for four years 
orked as an errand boy, during which time he steadily 
irned in his unopened pay envelope for the use of the 
ousehold. At the end of the fourth year the boy dis- 
ppeared, to the great distress of his invalid father and 2 
is poor mother, whose day washings became the sole 
ipport of the family. He had beaten his way to 
Kansas City, hoping “they wouldn’t be so particular 


4 o 4 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE , 

there about a fellow’s size.” He came back at the er 
of six weeks because he felt sorry for his mother wh 
aroused at last to a realization of his unbending pu 
pose, applied for help to the Juvenile Protective A 
5 sociation. They found a position for the boy in 
machine shop and an opportunity for evening classes. 

Out of the fifteen hundred members of the Hul 
House Boys’ club, hundreds seem to respond only t 
the opportunities for recreation, and many of the old< 
: o ones apparently care only for the bowling and tb 
billiards. And yet tournaments and match game 
under supervision and regulated hours are a great ac 
vance over the sensual and exhausting pleasures to b 
found so easily outside the club. These organized sport 
5 readily connect themselves with the Hull-House gyrr 
nasium and with all those enthusiasms which are s 
mysteriously aroused by athletics. 

Our gymnasium has been filled with large and en 
thusiastic classes for eighteen years in spite of th 
o popularity of dancing and other possible substitutes 
while the Saturday evening athletic contests have be 
come a feature of the neighborhood. 1 he Settlemen 
strives for that type of gymnastics which is at leas 
partly a matter of character, for that training whicl 
5 presupposes abstinence and the curbing of impulse, a 
well as for those athletic contests in which the mind o 
the contestant must be vigilant to keep the body closeh 
to the rules of the game. As one sees in rhythmic mo 



SOCIALIZED EDUCATION 


405 

rion the slim bodies of a class of lads, “that scrupulous 
and uncontaminate purity of form which recommended 
tself even to the Greeks as befitting messengers from 
:he gods, if such messengers should come,” one offers 
up in awkward prosaic form the very essence of that old 
prayer, “Grant them with feet so light to pass through 
ife.” But while the glory stored up for Olympian win¬ 
ters 0 was at most a handful of parsle}^ an ode, fame 
or family and city, on the other hand, when the men 
and boys from the Hull-House gymnasium bring back 
:heir cups and medals, one’s mind is filled with some- 
hing like foreboding in the reflection that too much 
success may lead the winners into that professionalism 
which is so associated with betting and so close to 
mgilism. Candor, however, compels me to state that 
1 long acquaintance with the acrobatic folk who have 
:o do with the circus, a large number of whom practice 
n our gymnasium every winter, has raised our estimate 
>f that profession. 

Young people who work long hours at sedentary oc- 
:upations, factories and offices, need perhaps more than 
inything else the freedom and ease to be acquired from 
1 symmetrical muscular development and are quick to 
respond to that fellowship which athletics apparently 
lifford more easily than anything else. The Greek im¬ 
migrants form large classes and are eager to reproduce 
he remnants of old methods of wrestling, and other bits 
)f classic lore which they still possess, and when one of 







406 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

the Greeks won a medal in a wrestling match whit 
represented the championship of the entire city, it w; 
quite impossible that he should present it to the Hul 
House trophy chest without a classic phrase which I 
s recited most gravely and charmingly. 

It was in connection with a large association of Gree 
lads that Hull-House finally lifted its long restriction 
against military drill. If athletic contests are th 
residuum of warfare first waged against the conquerc 
o without and then against the tyrants within the State 
the modern Greek youth is still in the first stage so fa 
as his inherited attitude against the 1 urk is concernec 
Each lad believes that at any moment he may be calle 
home to fight this long time enemy of Greece. Wit 
s such a genuine motive at hand, it seemed mere affecta 
tion to deny the use of our boys’ club building an< 
gymnasium for organized drill, although happily i 
forms but a small part of the activities of the Gree 
Educational Association. 

o Having thus confessed to military drill countenance 
if not encouraged at Hull-House, it is perhaps only fai 
to relate an early experience of mine with the “Colum 
bian Guards,” an organization of the World’s Fai 
summer. Although the Hull-House squad was organ 
s ized as the others were with the motto of a clean city, i 
was very anxious for military drill. I his request no 
only shocked my nonresistant principles, but seemed t 
afford an opportunity to find a substitute for the mill 











SOCIALIZED EDUCATION 


407 

tary tactics which were used in the boys’ brigades every¬ 
where, even in those connected with churches. As the 
cleaning of the filthy streets and alleys was the ostensi¬ 
ble purpose of the Columbian Guards, I suggested to the 
boys that we work out a drill with sewer spades, which 
with their long, narrow blades and shortened handles 
were not so unlike bayoneted guns in size, weight, and 
general appearance but that much of the usual military 
drill could be readapted. While I myself was present at 
the gymnasium to explain that it was nobler to drill in 
imitation of removing disease-breeding filth than to 
drill in simulation of warfare; while I distractedly re¬ 
adapted tales of chivalry to this modern rescuing of 
the endangered and distressed, the new drill went for¬ 
ward in some sort of fashion, but so surely as I with¬ 
drew, the drillmaster would complain that our troops 
would first grow self-conscious, then demoralized, and 
finally flatly refuse to go on. Throughout the year-s 
since the failure of this Quixotic experiment, I occasion¬ 
ally find one of these sewer spades in a Hull-House 
storeroom, too truncated to be used for its original pur¬ 
pose and too prosaic to serve the purpose for which it 
was bought. I can only look at it in the forlorn hope 
that it may foreshadow that piping time when the 
weapons of warfare shall be turned into the implements 
of civic salvation. 

Before closing this chapter on Socialized Education, 
• it is onlv fair to speak of the education accruing to the 










4 o8 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

Hull-House residents themselves during their years o 
living in what at least purports to be a center for socia 
and educational activity. 

While a certain number of the residents are primarily 
5 interested in charitable administration and the amelior 
ation which can be suggested only by those who knov 
actual conditions, there are other residents identified 
with the House from its earlier years to whom thti 
groups of immigrants make the historic appeal, and wh< 1 
ouse, not only'their linguistic ability, but all the resource j 
they can command of travel and reading to qualify 
themselves for intelligent living in the immigrant quar-; 
ter of the city. I remember one resident lately returned 
from a visit in Sicily, who was able to interpret to a be- 
swildered judge the ancient privilege of a jilted lover tc 
scratch the cheek of his faithless sweetheart with tht 
edge of a coin. Although the custom in America had; 
degenerated into a knife slashing, after the manner of 
foreign customs here, and although the Sicilian deserved ) 
o punishment, the incident was yet lifted out of the 
slough of mere brutal assault, and the interpretation j 
won the gratitude of many Sicilians. 

There is no doubt that residents in a Settlement too 
often move towards their ends * l with hurried and 
5 ignoble gait,” putting forth thorns in their eagerness to 
bear grapes. It is always easy for those in pursuit of 
ends which they consider of overwhelming importance 
to become themselves thin and impoverished in spirit 



SOCIALIZED EDUCATION 


409 


and temper, to gradually develop a dark, mistaken eager¬ 
ness alternating with fatigue, which supersedes “the 
great and gracious ways” so much more congruous 
with worthy aims. 

Partly because of this universal tendency, partly be- 5 
cause a Settlement shares the perplexities of its times 
and is never too dogmatic concerning the final truth, 
the residents would be glad to make the daily life at the 
Settlement “conform to every shape and mode of 
excellence.” 1° 

It may not be true 

“That the good are always the merry 
Save by an evil chance,” 

but a Settlement would make clear that one need not 
be heartless and flippant in order to be merry, nor 15 
solemn in order to be wise. Therefore quite as Hull- 
House tries to redeem billiard tables from the associa¬ 
tion of gambling, and dancing from the temptations of 
the public dance halls, so it would associate with a life 
af upright purpose those more engaging qualities which 20 
In the experience of the neighborhood are too often con¬ 
nected with dubious aims. 

Throughout the history of Hull-House many in¬ 
quiries have been made concerning the religion of the 
residents, and the reply that they are as diversified in 25 
belief and in the ardor of the inner life as any like num¬ 
ber of people in a college or similar group, apparently 




410 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

does not carry conviction. I recall that after a house fo 
men residents had been opened on Polk Street and th 
residential force at Hull-House numbered twenty, w 
made an effort to come together on Sunday evening 
s in a household service, hoping thus to express our mora 
unity in spite of the fact that we represented mam 
creeds. But although all of us reverently knelt whei 
the High Church resident read the evening service anc 
bowed our heads when the evangelical resident led ii 

10 pi aver after his chapter, and although we sat respect¬ 
fully through the twilight when a resident read hei ! 
favorite passages from Plato and another from Abt 
Vogler, we concluded at the end of the winter that this 
was not religious fellowship and that we did not care foi | 

1 s another reading club. So it was reluctantly given up, 

and we found that it was quite as necessary to cornel 
together on the basis of the deed and our common aimj 
inside the household as it was in the neighborhood itself 
I once had a conversation on the subject with the ward- 

20 en of Oxford House, who kindly invited me to the even¬ 
ing service held for the residents in a little chapel on 
the top floor of the Settlement. All the residents were 
High Churchmen to whom the service was an important 
and leverent part of the day. Upon my reply to a 

2 5 Query of the warden that the residents of Hull-House 

could not come together for religious worship because 
there were among us Jews, Roman Catholics, English 
Churchmen, Dissenters, and a few agnostics, and that 






SOCIALIZED EDUCATION 


411 

ve had found unsatisfactory the diluted form of worship 
\vhich we could carry on together, he replied that it 
'mist be most difficult to work with a group so diversi- 
'Red, for he depended upon the evening service to clear 
away any difficulties which the day had involved and 5 
to bring the residents to a religious consciousness of 
their common aim. I replied that this diversity of 
:reed was part of the situation in American Settlements, 
as it was our task to live in a neighborhood of many 
nationalities and faiths, and that it might be possible 1 
that among such diversified people it was better that 
the Settlement corps should also represent varying 
religious beliefs. 

A wise man has told us that “men are once for all so 
made that they prefer a rational world to believe in and 1 
to live in,” but that it is no easy matter to find a world 
rational as to its intellectual, aesthetic, moral, and 
practical aspects. Certainly it is no easy mattei if the 
place selected is of the very sort where the four aspects 
are apparently furthest from perfection, but an under- 2 
taking resembling this is what the Settlement gradually 
becomes committed to, as its function is revealed 
through the reaction on its consciousness of its own 
experiences. Because of this fourfold undertaking, the 
Settlement has gathered into residence people of widely 2 
diversified tastes and interests and in Hull-House, at 
least, the group has been surprisingly permanent. The 
majority of the present corps of forty residents support 



412 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

themselves by their business and professional occup 
tions in the city, giving only their leisure time to Settl 
ment undertakings. 1 his in itself tends to continuit 
of residence and has certain advantages. Among th 
5 present staff, of whom the larger number have been i 
residence for more than twelve years, there are th 
secretary or the City Club, two practicing physician; 
several attorneys, newspaper men, business mer 
teachers, scientists, artists, musicians, lecturers in th 
i o School of Civics and Philanthropy, officers in The Juve 
nile Protective Association and in The League for th 
Protection of Immigrants, a visiting nurse, a sanitar 
inspector, and others. 

We have also worked out during our years of resident 

1 s a plan of living which may be called cooperative, fo 

the families and individuals who rent the Hull-Hous< 
apartments have the use of the central kitchen ancjl 
dining room so far as they care for them; many of then 
work for hours every week in the studios and shops; the 
20 theater and drawing-rooms are available for such socia] 
oigamzation as they care to form; the entire group oi 
thirteen buildings is heated and lighted from a central 
plant. During the years, the common human experi- i 
ences have gathered about the House; funeral services 

2 5 have been held there, marriages and christenings, and 

many memories hold us to each other as well as to our 
neighbors. Each resident, of course, carefully defrays 
his own expenses, and his relations to his fellow residents 






SOCIALIZED EDUCATION 413 

re not unlike those of a college professor to his col¬ 
eagues. The depth and strength of his relation to the 
leighborhood must depend very largely upon himself 
md upon the genuine friendships he has been able to 
nake. His relation to the city as a whole comes largely 5 
hrough his identification with those groups who are 
:arrving forward the reforms which a Settlement 
leighborhood so sadly needs and with which residence 
las made him familiar. 

Life in the Settlement discovers above all what has 10 
3een called “the extraordinary pliability of human 
lature,” and it seems impossible to set any bounds to 
the moral capabilities which might unfold under ideal 
civic and educational conditions. But in order to obtain 
these conditions, the Settlement recognizes the need of 15 
cooperation, both with the radical and the conservative, 
and from the very nature of the case the Settlement can¬ 
not limit its friends to any one political party or 
economic school. 

The Settlement casts aside none of those things 20 
which cultivated men have come to consider reasonable 
and goodly, but it insists that those belong as well to 
that great body of people who, because of toilsome and 
underpaid labor, are unable to procure them for them¬ 
selves. Added to this is a profound conviction that the 25 
common stock of intellectual enjoyment should not be 
difficult of access because of the economic position o 
him who would approach it, that those “best results of 





4 H TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


civilization upon which depend the finer and free 
aspects of living must be incorporated into our commoi 
life and have free mobility through all elements o 
society if we would have our democracy endure. 

5 I he educational activities of a Settlement, as well a; 
its philanthropic, civic, and social undertakings, are bul 
differing manifestations of the attempt to socialize 

democracy, as is the very existence of the Settlement 
itself. in 
















NOTES 


5:14. “the winds that come from the fields of sleep.” 

ee Wordsworth’s Ode on Intimations of Immortality in Early 

Childhood for exact quotation. # 

12:18. Shorter Catechism. The Presbyterian Church uses 
he Westminster Assembly’s Catechism, or book of questions 
nd answers on the church doctrines and principles of re¬ 
gion, in two forms, the shorter, or condensed, and the 
3ng er. The first named is intended especially for use with 

hildren. _ , ~ , , 

14:6. Hawthorne’s “Lime-Burner.” Ethan Brand, hero 

,f Hawthorne’s short story, who goes as a youth seeking the 
‘unpardonable sin” mentioned in the Bible, only to find 
Tter many years that he has been unconsciously com- 

nitting it himself. c . 

1^:28. Vulgate. The Latin version of the Scriptures, 

iccepted as the authorized version of the Roman Catholic 

18:24. Joseph Mazzini. (1805-72.) An Italian patriot, 
born at Genoa, who devoted his entire life to freeing Italy 
from tyranny at home and abroad. While in pnson m 1830. 
he mapped out an organization to be known as lot g 
Italy,” through which he worked for the rest of lus life. Its 
publicly-avowed aims were the freeing of Italy from domestic 
and foreign tyranny and its unification under a republican 
form of government. The means were to be education an , 
where advisable, insurrection by guerilla bands. Mazzini 
lived to see Italy free and united, but not as a republic. 


4i5 








4i 6 


NOTES 


1 


19:11. Hapsburg. The name of the famous family frc 

which have sprung the dukes and archdukes of Austria sin 

1282, the kings of Hungary and Bohemia since 1526 and t 

emperors of Austria since 1804. The Hapsburgs were ai 

Roman emperors and German kings from 1438 to 1806 ai 

kings of Spam from 1516 to 1700. The last Austrian emper 

died in exile following the World War, when Austria 

holdings were disrupted to form several smaller states c 
racial lines. 

nntfdt ^ alter ? atei |-, (i8 39 - 94 -) An English essayis 
noted for his wonderfully polished and beautiful style As 

young man he had intended becoming a clergyman, bu 

f n i er lnfluence ° f hls reading at Oxford University, h 

instend A r n t n amty became shaken ’ a " d he turned to writin 
instead. All his writings are more or less tinged with th 

mental conflict brought on by his religious struggle 

27:6. Governor Oglesby. Richard James Oglesby (18,4 

99 ) served in both the Mexican and the Civil wars, rising 

the rank of major general in the latter. He was governor o 

from°Tli n 72i « WaS regl “ ted ’ but resigned to become senato 
1885-9 lnUI ' 1 e sery ed again as governor durin; 

1 28: ' 9 - . Lmcoln-Uouglas debates. In 1858, Lincoln wa* 
the candidate of the newly-organized Republican Party foi 
senator from Illinois, and Stephen A. Douglas the Denio- 

rh K- Follo ™" g the re P eal of the Missouri Compromise by 
the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of ,854, slavery was thTchief 

durin^r 011 Challenged Douglas to meet the same audiences 
during the coming campaign. Douglas accepted, but cleverly 

arranged the time to get four opening and closing speeches 
to Lincoln s three. Douglas, who was acknowledged to b 
the best speaker in Congress, took with the crowd 8 and wo 

i d^r-M- , Wh ! le LinC ° ln left the dee P er impressio; 
and set the people thinking. Douglas was elected senatoi 










fro 


NOTES 


417 


jut two years later Lincoln won the presidency, largely as 
n outcome of the currents of thought set in motion by the 
a | reat joint debate. The speeches are still studied by young 
peakers seeking models in debate and oratory. 

28:22. Little Tad. Lincoln’s much-loved little son, Thad- 
eus, his father’s constant companion. 

29:3. Sympathetic strikes. A s}^mpathetic strike is one 
ndertaken by a body of workmen, who have no special 
rievance of their own, in behalf of another body of workers 
n strike. It is of recent development and is the working- 
blj nan’s recognition of “the solidarity of labor”; that is, the 
In >rinciple that labor’s interests are everywhere the same and 
hat an injury to one is an injury to all. The Pullman strike 
tl >f 1894 was a s)^mpathetic strike. 

29:5. St. Gaudens statue. The statue of Lincoln, unveiled 
n Lincoln Park, Chicago, in 1887, is still considered the 
inest portrait statue in America. It is the work of Augustus 
It. Gaudens (1848-1907), an American sculptor, born in 
Dublin of Irish and French parentage. In the opinion of 

I minent critics, “In simple dignity of conception, subtle 
ombination of the real with the ideal, quiet strength and 
ntensely human appeal, the Lincoln statue surpasses. 

31:2. Lyman Trumbull. (1813-96.) A lawyer who served 
n the Illinois Legislature in 1840. He was Secretary of State 
r or Illinois, 1841-2, and justice of the Illinois Supreme Court, 
:848-53- He was senator from Illinois, 1855-73. Guring the 
ympathetic strikes of 1894 (see 29:3)) Mr. Irumbull dr- 
ended the imprisoned strike leaders. 

34:12. Arnold Toynbee. (1852-83.) An English social re- 
ormer and economist, who died at the early age of 31 as a 
esult of overwork in behalf of the poor in the W hitechapel 
lum district of East London. In his Whitechapel work, he 
lad been closely associated with Canon A. S. Barnett. (See 
02:26.) In commemoration of Toynbee’s efforts to aid the- 











4i 8 


NOTES 


P° or > ^ oyn ^ ee ^all, t ^ ie fi rst °f many settlement houses 
the East Side of London, was erected for the purpose of u 
lifting and brightening the lives of the poor. How mu< 
Miss Addams owed to the influence of Toynbee Hall may 1 
judged from her frequent references to it in her account < 
the influences leading up to the founding of Hull-House 
35:27. Caird’s “Evolution of Religion.” Published in 18c 
by Edward Caird (1835-1908), an English educator an 
philosopher. Mr. Caird was professor of moral philosophy 2 
Glasgow University for thirty-eight years and succeede 
Doctor Jowett as master of Baliol College in 1893, servin 
until two years before his death. 

37 : 21 . Jowett. Benjamin Jowett (1817-93) was a the 
ologian, a tutor, a university reformer, and a great master o 
a great college. His best claim to remembrance, accordin 
to those who knew and worked with him, was his greatnes 

3 f R TTPn aChei X PT 1870 until llis death ’ he was maste 
of Baliol College, Oxford, a college which has a high reputa- 
tion for scholarship. 

39-6. Smith College. A college for women, founded a; 
Northampton M ass., in 1875, with funds left for that pur- 
pose by Miss Sophia Smith (1796-1870). Miss Smith hersell 
outlined the plans for the college, which has become one oi 
the largest in the world for women. 

fonnd 2 3 fT 1 H r ° Iy0k ®- A P' oneer college for women. 

in ,8,* Tk Y V' 0 ".. (797-1849) at South Hadley, Mass., 
m 1836. The school which was opened in 1837, has a reputa- 
tion for thorough scholarship. 

a DU nil'nm S f t0tIe ' if 4 ' 3 / 2 B ' r' } A S reat Greek philosopher, 

tleln P schoo! a of’p a hnosop U h y der “ kn ° Wn “ ^ A " St °- 

40:22 Boswell's Johnson. James Boswell (174^95) was a 
Scotch lawyer, whose name lives to the present day because of 

his famous Biography of Samuel Johnson,” published ini7 9I . 








NOTES 


419 

42:9. Beloit College. A coeducational, nonsectarian insti- 
ution in Beloit, Wis., directly north of Rockford, Ill. 

42:13. Bellerophon . . .fight with Minotaur. In Greek 
nythology, Bellerophon was the conqueror, not of the 
vlinotaur, but of the Chimerae, the monsters symbolizing 
torms and other destructive natural forces. Theseus, with 
he help of Ariadne, slew the Minotaur. 

42:16. Pegasus. The famous winged horse which sprang 
rom the head of the gorgon Medusa when she was slain by 
3 erseus. Mounted on Pegasus, Bellerophon slew the Chi- 
nerae, but when he tried to fly heavenward, the horse threw 
lim. 

43:5. Plutarch hero. The celebrity of Plutarch (46-120 
l.d.) is founded on his forty-six “Parallel Lives,” in which he 
;ives in pairs the biographies of famous Greek and Roman 
tatesmen, orators, and warriors. Thus Lycurgus is paired 
vith Numa, Theseus with Romulus, and Alexander with 
ulius Caesar. 

43:19. Saxon word for lady. AS Hlcefdige , later hitsfdie, 

1 compound of hlaf, loaf, bread, and dige, connected with 
Icegee , a kneader, from the root of dah, dough. 1 he whole 
)ictures the original “Lady of the manor,” who doled out 
)read to her husband’s dependents. 

46:6. Grandfatherly relation. Bronson Alcott was the 
ather of Louisa May Alcott, author of “Little Women,” which 
vas eagerly read by the girls of Miss Addams s day. 

46:16. Port Royalists. The convent of Port-Royal-des- 
Ihamps near Versailles was long a retreat for lay persons 
vho desired to lead a life of solitude without taking vows, 
iome of the most distinguished scholars of the time lived 
:here, devoting their time to prayer, spiritual reading, in¬ 
struction, and manual labor. Coming into conflict with the 
Catholic Church because of too liberal views during the 
seventeenth century, the order was dispersed. 










420 


NOTES 


46.28. Homer. The great Greek epic poet, who probabl 
h v ed in the ninth or tenth century b.c. His great works ar 
the “Iliad,” dealing with the Trojan War, and the “Odyssey, 
which tells ot the wanderings of Ulysses and his companion 
following the fall of Troy. 

48.19- Plato. A great Athenian philosopher (427-347 b.c. 

In his writings, two great forces are persistent: the love c 
truth and the zeal for human improvement. His two i 
portant works are his “Dialogues” and the “Republic.” 
48:26. Jowett’s translation. See 41 7. 

49.20. Leipsic. The University of Leipsic was at that tim 
the third largest of the German universities. 

50:26. William Jennings Bryan. A well-known politica 
leader. 

51:6. Athens of Illinois. Since Athens was the center o 
Greek culture, places containing centers of learning have 
been fond of calling themselves the “Athens” of their par¬ 
ticular region. In this case the reference is to Jacksonville 

because of the number of educational institutions located 
there. 

51:17. Field Oi Waterloo. Field of defeat. An allusion to 
Napoleon s decisive defeat at Waterloo in June, 1815, which 
closed his long victorious career as master of Europe. 

53 - IO - Sombart and Loria. Werner Sombart (1863—) is a 
German political economist. Achille Loria (1857—) is an 
Italian economist of the school which explains history in the 
lght of economic conditions. He is in sympathy with the 
Socialists, but unlike them, believes that natural forces will 
eventually give the laborer his just reward. 

55 - 1 7 - Maeterlinck. Maurice Maeterlinck, a Belgian 
poet, essayist, and dramatist, was born in 1862. His writings 
are characterized by a dreamy symbolism, of which “The 

Ue N B ! F 1 (l9 °? ) , ls an excel,ent example. He was awarded 
the In o bel prize in literature in 1911. 













NOTES 


421 

56:10. Cassandra. Daughter of Priam and Hecuba of 
froy, beloved of Apollo and gifted by him with the power of 
>rophecy. After receiving the gift, she laughed at his love, 
ind in revenge he decreed that her prophecies should always 
>e discredited. The term “Cassandra-like” is applied to 
varnings which are true but not heeded. 

57:10. Darwin’s “Origin of Species.” The full title of the 
)ook, published by Charles Darwin (1809-92) in 1859, is 
‘On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or 
he Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle of Life.” 
The book brought the author into conflict with the Church, 
ince it contradicted the special-creation hypothesis. “The 
descent of Man, and Selection With Relation to Sex,” ap- 
>earing in 1871, brought Darwin into fuller conflict with 
hose who interpreted the Bible narrowly and literally, since 
‘The Descent of Man” taught that the mind of man was 
ssentially an animal mind, which had progressed through 
he ages through natural causes. 

57:13. Butler’s “Analogy.” Published in 1736 by Joseph 
Sutler (1692-1752), an English theologian. The full title is 
‘The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the 
Constitution and Course of Nature.” The leading aim of the 
>ook is “to show that all the objections to revealed religion 
re equally applicable to the whole constitution of nature, 
nd that the general analogy between the principles of 
livine government, as revealed in the Scriptures, and those 
nanifested in the course of nature warrants the belief that 
hey have one author.” Naturally, a firm 'believer in the 
‘Analogy” would not be among the first to embrace Dar¬ 
winism ! 

60:12. Gray’s “Anatomy.” A standard work on descriptive 
nd surgical anatomy, published in 1858 by Henry Gray, 
'ellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and lecturer on 
natomy at St. George’s Hospital Medical School, London. 




422 


NOTES 


I his sentence states Miss Addams’s sense of relief at havir 
escaped from the drudgery of the medical course for whit 
she had found herself unsuited. 

62:2. East End. That part of London lying east of “tl 
City,” or great commercial heart of London. Roughly, tl 
“East End” comprises the boroughs of Stepney, Popla 
Shoreditch, and Bethnal Green. It is here that the prol 
lems attaching to London’s poor were primarily workej 
out. 

62:7. Mile End Road. The name applied to the norther 
of the two main roads entering London from the east. Entei 
ing at Stratford, the road is successively known as Bow Roac 
Mile End Road, Whitechapel Road, and High Street. Natui 
ally, it traverses the poorest districts of London. 

64:17. Pall Mall Gazette Exposure. The Pall Ma 
Gazette, a famous London newspaper, then under the editoi 
ship of W. T. Stead, published in 1889 a series of article 
called The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon. While th 
articles brought Mr. Stead’s editorship to an end, they ha< 
the effect of arousing a wave of indignation at the revelatio; 
given of the horrors of the “white slave traffic” among wome: 
and girls in London’s poorer districts. 

66:6. “Weltschmerz.” Literally world-sorrow. Grie 
over existing conditions. 

66:23. Pensions. A continental term for boarding houses 
derived from the French pension, money paid for board. 

67:2. Hausfrau. Housewife. 

69:17. a Lif& of Prince Albert.” Albert, consort of Queei 
Victoria of England, was a prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. 
a German state comprising the duchy of Saxe-Coburg, bor 
dering Bavaria, and Gotha, bordering Prussia. Albert owe< 
much of the qualities that endeared him to the Englisl 
people to the wise training of his tutor, Baron Stockmar 
mentioned in the following line. 




NOTES 


423 


69:24. Dresden. The capital of the former kingdom of 
axony. It is famous for its picture gallery, which is especially 
ch in works of the Italian, Flemish, and Dutch painters. 
70:2. Albrecht Diirer. (1471-1528.) A German painter, 
igraver, and designer, the most prominent and influential 
laster of the German Renaissance. His work varied from 
mple portraits to wonderfully executed altar pieces, and 
reat series of wood cuts, such as the “Apocalypse” series of 
xteen blocks, published in 1498, the fourth block, 1 he 
our Riders of the Apocalypse,” probably being the greatest. 
The Triumphal Arch of Maximilian,” published after r5i2, 
as composed of ninety plates, so engraved as to form a 
riumphal arch ten feet high. 

70:11. Reformation and peasants’wars. Th g Reformation 
as the name applied to the great revolution which took 
lace in the sixteenth century against certain doctrines and 
ractices of the Roman Catholic Church. Although primarily 
religious revolution, which attacked the universal suprem- 
cy of the Pope, it was accompanied by political and social 
hanges, one of which was the peasants war. The Gerntan 
easants of Luther’s day were in a more deplorable state 
han those of France and England. When in 1525 the new 
eligious doctrines were spread among them, accompanied by 
ew ideas of property rights, the peasants rose in revolt and 
nflicted upon their late masters much the same cruelties as 
hose recently inflicted by the Russian peasants when they 
•verthrew the Romanoff rule. Luther at first sympathized 
vdth the peasants, but as their excesses grew, he feared for 
lis reforms to be associated with anarchy and urged that 
he rebels be put down with the sword. I he revolt was stamp- 
d out without any apparent improvement for the peasantry. 

71:6. Roman Campagna. The name applied to the low, 
inhealthful plain of Italy surrounding Rome. In recent years, 
Irainage and the planting of trees by the Italian Government 





424 


NOTES 


have done much to reclaim the district and make it mo 
healthful. 

71:7. Porta del Popolo. A gate replacing the Pori 
Flaminia, one of the fourteen gates in the Aurelian Wal 
built 271-80 a.d. as a protection against sudden attacl 
from the Germans and other northern tribes. It is on tl 
Via Flaminia, the northwest entrance through the Aurelia 
Wall into Rome. 

71:13. Ecco Roma. “Behold Rome.” 

71:19* Catacombs. Subterranean vaults used as buri; 
places for the dead. The Roman Catacombs, about sixty i 
number, are the best known in the world. During the perst 
cution of the Christians in the first four centuries followin 
Christ, the Catacombs were also used as places of refuge an 
for secret religious worship. Because of their religious assc 
ciations and the frescoes and carvings with which they ar 
decorated, the Roman Catacombs have always been place 2 
of interest to visitors. 

72:1. Lanciani. Rodolfo Amedo Lanciani (1847—) is ail 
Italian archeologist, who has been in the service of the Italiaij 
Government since 1870 and who has directed most of th 
famous excavations of the last half century. He became well 
known in the United States through his books dealing witl 
monuments and excavations of ancient Rome and througl 
his lecture tour of America, 1886-7. 

72:3. Johns Hopkins. A university in Baltimore, Md.j 
founded in 1867 by Johns Hopkins, who bequeathed #7,000,00c 
to found a university and hospital. The Johns HopkinJ 
Hospital was opened in 1889, and the work of the John: 
Hopkins Medical School inaugurated in 1893* Fhe school i: 
noted for thoroughness and for the advanced type of re-1 
search work carried on there. 

75*26. Phossy jaw. A chronic form of poisoning occurring 
in the manufacture of phosphorus matches. 



NOTES 


425 

76:7. Wells. H. G. Wells (1866—■) is an English novelist 
strongly marked socialistic tendencies. Beginning his 
terary career with books of scientific and sociological forecast 
: the Jules Verne type, such as “The War of the Worlds,” 
[898) in which our planet is invaded by monstrous creatures 
om Mars, he had progressed to discussion of purely social- 
tic questions, such as “The Future in America,” in 1906, and 
New Worlds for Old,” in 1908, an account of socialism. 

76:18: Positivists. A school of philosophers who adopted 
leir name from August Comte’s term, which purported to 
:clude all theorizing and confine itself to “positive” scientific 
lowdedge of facts. In England, positivism has attempted to 
! stitutionalize itself by the establishment of a church, with 
tual, ceremonials, and the like, all in the worship of Human- 
y. Frederic Harrison (1831—) was president of the English 
ositivist Committee from 1880 to 1905. 

76:27. Stonehenge. A celebrated stone circle, the ruins of 
hich stand on Salisbury Plain in southern England. It is 
obably a relic of the ancient Druids, dating back to the 
ronze Age. 

76:27. Acropolis. An acropolis in ancient Greece was a 
rtified natural eminence, usually containing the palace of' 
te chief. When defended by a wall, it usually lost its military 
laracter and was given over to temples. The Acropolis of 
thens was the religious center of the city, crowned with 
rmples and shrines. 

76:28. Sistine Chapel. The private chapel of the Pope in 
le palace of the Vatican, Rome. It was built in 1473 and 
intains beautiful examples of the marble decorations of the 
irly Renaissance. The walls and ceilings are richly frescoed. 
77:1. Winchester. A famous British cathedral, built in 
>70 on the site of a church built in 166; destroyed in 266; 
stored in 293 and converted into a temple to Wodin; de- 
royed in 635 to make room for the ancient cathedral, in 


NOTES 


426 

which were buried the Saxon kings of Wessex. The presei 
cathedral is a beautiful type of Norman architecture ai 
contains the tombs of Edmund, son of King Alfred, and 
William Rufus (1056-1100). 

77:1. Notre Dame. A celebrated church in Paris, dedicate 
to the Virgin Mary. It was begun in 1163 by Bishop Mauri 
de Sully, and its construction was carried on through sever 
centuries. All through the succeeding centuries, Notre Dar- 
de Paris (Our Lady of Paris) has been the scene of the me 
important ceremonies of church and state in France. 

77:2. Amiens. The largest cathedral in France and one 
the finest specimens of Gothic architecture in Europe, 
was begun in 1220 and finished in 1288, but numerous adt 
tions have since been made. 

77:3. Ulm. A city in Wiirtemburg,Germany. TheMinste, 
a Protestant church, is the most important and beautif 
example of Gothic architecture in Germany, and next 
the Cologne Cathedral the largest church in that country. 

77:14. Luther. . .affixed his thesis. Martin Luther (148 
1546) was a German monk, who, becoming convinced 
abuses within the Roman Catholic Church, particularly 
regard to the open sale by agents of the Pope of indulgence 
which included the remission of temporal punishment f 
the committing of sin as well as remission of pains of purgato 
after death, nailed to the church door at Wittenberg, Octob 
31, 1517, ninety-five theses calling into question the value 
indulgences and the practices of the agents employed to si 
them. From this grew the great Protestant Reformatio 
(See 70:11.) 

77:27. Comte. Auguste Comte (1798-1857) was a cel 
bra ted French philosopher, the founder of what is known 1 
the Positivist school of philosophy. (See 76:18.) 

78:12. Riviera. The popular name for the beautiful coa 
line of Italy and southern France, particularly around ti 





NOTES 


427 


!ulf of Genoa. Thousands are attracted here each winter by 
,le mild climate to the famous resorts of Cannes, Nice, 
.lentone, Monte Carlo, and San Remo. 

78:16. Deaconess’s Training School. An institution sanc- 
oned by the Episcopal, the Methodist Episcopal, the Lu- 
Jieran, and the Presbyterian churches for the instruction 
,nd training of women in church and charitable work. It is 
similar to the Catholic sisterhoods, except that the members 
ike no, vows and are bound to no terms of service. 

80:23. Raison d’etre. Literally reason for being ; in other 
/ords, an excuse. 

81:9. Miss Starr. Ellen Gates Starr, Miss Addams’s de- 
oted friend and fellow worker, joint founder of Hull-House, 
fiss Starr has taken an intense interest in the labor move¬ 
ment, especially as it affected women workers, and was ar- 
ssted for protesting against the arrest of girl pickets in the 
Taitresses’ strike in Chicago, March 2, 1914. She was 
cquitted, thus vindicating the right of free speech. She was 
lade an honorary member of the Clothing Workers’ Union 
Dr valuable services in their strike in 1915-16. 

81:28. People’s Palace. See 110:13. 

82:3. Canon Fremantle. William Henry Fremantle, born 
1 1831, is a distinguished English clergyman, who was Can- 
n of Canterbury in 1882 and Dean of Ripon in 1895. He 
/as Bampton lecturer at Oxford in 1883, his lectures being 
ublished in 1885 under the title, he World on the Subject 
»f Redemption.” 

82:14. Tolstoy’s phrase. Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) 
/as a famous Russian novelist whose writings and life had a 
Tofound influence on the thought of the last half of the nine- 
eenth century. Born of the aristocratic class and inheriting 
reat estates, he became in his later life so impressed with the 
alutary influence of labor that he gave up most of his estate 
0 the peasants and lived and worked among them. 



NOTES 




428 

83:11. Professor Swing. David Swing (1830-94) was 2! 
American minister, at one time pastor of the Fourth Presb’ 
terian Church in Chicago. He was tried for heresy becau:! 
of his liberal views in 1874 but was acquitted. However, 1 
withdrew and organized a new church, meeting first in 
theater, later in Central Music Hall. Part of his congn 
gation followed, and he preached to the largest crowds i 
Chicago. 

83:14. Mrs. Wilmarth. A Chicago phdanthropist who wc 
a devoted friend and supporter of Hull-House. Before tk 
House was opened, she gave a reception at her home t 
introduce Miss Addams and Miss Starr to people in Chicag 
who might be interested in the project. She died in Augus 
1920. 

83:16. Thomas Davidson. (18401900.) An America 
philosopher, born in Scotland and educated at the Univei 
sity of Aberdeen, who came to the United States in 1867 
settling at Cambridge, Mass., in 1875 where he was activ ; 
as a scholar, author, and lecturer. For many years he cor 
ducted a “summer school of culture” in the Adirondack 
and from 1898 a class of Russian Jews in New York City. 

83:17* Fabian society. An organization for the advance 
ment of socialism. It takes its name from the Roman genera 
Fabius, who by his policy of delay saved the state. Thi 
society seeks to improve social conditions by trying to bette 
existing conditions instead of by revolutionary attempts 
The movement was begun in London in 1883 when an Arneri 
can, Thomas Davidson, who happened to be in London, heh 
parlor conferences, with a group of literary workers chiefly 
on the social duties of the times. Since 1888, the society ha 
held public meetings and carries an on active propaganda 
for government ownership of land and “such industries a | 
can be managed conveniently.” It seeks to abolish th< 
idle class and to give equality of opportunity to ail. 





NOTES 


429 


85:24. Koerner’s poems. Karl Theodor Koerner (more 
commonly Korner) was a young German poet and patriot, 
born in 1791. He was killed in guerilla warfare against Napo¬ 
leon in 1813. His fiery patriotic songs, written to encourage 
his fellow fighters to repel the invader, have remained popular 
among his countrymen. 

86 :22. Colonel Mason. Roswell B. Mason, mayor of 
Chicago in 1869. 

87-125. Miss Helen Culver. (1832—.) A teacher and 
philanthropist, born at Little Valley, N. Y. In 1853, she 
established a private school at Sycamore, Ill. She was a 
teacher in the Chicago schools, 1854-61, and matron of a 
military hospital at Murfreesboro, Tenn., in 1863. She 
entered the real estate business with a relative, Charles J. 
Hull, in 1868. After Mr. Hull’s death, she built and endowed 
the four Hull biological laboratories for the University of 
Chicago, 1895. She has been trustee for the Hull-House 
Association since its foundation in 1895. 

93:2. “Romola.” A story of Florentine life in the fifteenth 
century. The monk Savonarola plays an important part. 

93:17. Brook Farm . . . the Ripleys. Brook Farm was a 
community organized in 1841 by George Ripley and his wife 
as an experiment in cooperative living. A farm of 200 acres 
was purchased. Each member had to do some share of the 
work, the rate of pay being the same for all kinds of work, 
and all having a share in the social and educational enjoy¬ 
ments. Among the prominent persons connected with Brook 
Farm were Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles A. Dana, Ralph 
Waldo Emerson, Bronson Alcott, Theodore Parker, George 
W. Curtis, and Margaret Fuller. Hawthorne’s “Blithedale 
Romance” was written out of his experiences here. The asso¬ 
ciation came to an end in 1847, “plain living and high think¬ 
ing” having failed to hold the group of intellectuals to their 
self-imposed tasks. 


430 NOTES 

(See Codman’s “Brook Farm, Historic and Personal Mem¬ 
oirs”; Frothingham’s “Life of George Ripley”; and Swift’s 
“Brook Farm, Its Members, Scholars, and Visitors.”) 

93:24. The charming young girl was Miss Jennie Dow. 
Her kindergarten was the first organized activity of Hull- 
House. She remained only one year, later becoming Mrs. 
William Harvey. She died in 1904. 

96:1. Prince Roland. According to tradition, Roland was i 
the nephew of Charlemagne and prefect of Brittany. He was 
the hero of the “Chanson de Roland,” a famous eleventh- 
century epic poem, and figured in many tales of knightly 
daring. 

98:19. Gaelic. The language of the Highland Scotch. 
Also loosely applied to any of the Celtic tongues, including 
Irish and Manx. 

102:24. CanonBarnett. Samuel Augustus Barnett(i844—■), 
an English clergyman, who was the first warden of Toynbee 
Hall in 1884. His book, “Practical Socialism,” appeared in 1893. 

104:17. Robert A. Woods. An American settlement worker 
born in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1865. He received his A. B. at 
Amherst in 1886 and was in residence for six months at 
Toynbee Hall (see 37:25) in 1890. Since 1911, he has been 
secretary of the National Federation of Settlements. His 
published works include “English Social Movements,” 1891; 
“Americans in Process,” 1902. He has contributed many 
articles to the current magazines. 

105:2. Miss Vida D. Scudder. Miss Scudder, who was 
born in India in 1861, was graduated from Smith College in 
1884, receiving her A.M. in 1889. She was connected with 
the beginnings of the college settlement movement in Amer¬ 
ica. She is at present professor of literature at Wellesley 
College, is the author of several books, chiefly on literary 
subjects, and has edited numerous college and high school 
classics. 


NOTES 


43 i 

105:2. Miss Helena Dudley. An American settle¬ 
ment worker, born in Nebraska in 1853. She was educated 
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at 
Bryn Mawr. In 1892-3, she was head worker in a college 
settlement in Philadelphia. From 1893 to 1912, she was 
head worker in the Denison House College Settlement, 
Boston. 

108:26. Locke and Pestalozzi. John Locke (1632-1704) 
was -an English philosopher, whose fame rests largely on his 
“Essay Concerning Human Understanding,” published in 1687 
after seventeen years of labor. The essay marks an epoch in 
the history of philosophy. Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi 
(1746-1827) w 7 as a Swiss reformer and chief founder of 
modern pedagogy. He conceived the idea of combining learn¬ 
ing with handwork and centering it upon objects of the child’s 
immediate environment. Pestalozzi was the founder of the 
first “normal school” for training teachers in “methods in 
accordance with nature.” The great American normal school 
movement grew out of his work. He himself said his great 
effort was “to psychologize education.” 

110:13. Walter Besant. An English novelist and critic, 
who in 1882 wrote “All Sorts and Conditions of Men,” deal.ing 
with social conditions in the East Side of London. 1 he work 
gave such a clear picture of the sordid life and limited oppor¬ 
tunities of the common people of East London that it led to 
the establishment of the People’s Palace and gave impetus 
to many other attempts at social reforms. The People’s 
Palace, which was established at Mile End in 1887, is intended 
to furnish the people of East London with educational and 
recreational facilities. The original fund was established in 
1840 by John Beaumont. A quarter of a million, raised by 
Sir Edward Hay Currie, was added later. Besant’s Palace 
of Delight in “All Sorts and Conditions of Men” suggested a 
name and created a wider interest in the work. The institution 


432 


NOTES 


offers the same sort of advantages, educational and recreation¬ 
al, as Hull-House, only on a larger scale. 

126:6. University. . .righteousness of whose foundation 
they challenged. John D. Rockefeller, Standard Oil magnate, 
contributed the larger part of the original endowment fund 
and has since added gifts totaling $10,500,000 more. Since 
the Standard Oil Company was a trust, Mr. Rockefeller’s 
money was said to be “tainted,” because it had been obtained- 
by crushing small competitors and driving them out of 
business. 

127:4. Washington Gladden. An American author and 
clergyman (1836-1918), widely known as a writer on social 
reforms. Among his published works are: “Workingmen and 
Their Employers,” 1876; “Applied Christianity,” 1887; “Tools 
and the Man,” 1893; “Social Facts and Forces,” 1897. 

127:23. Henry D. Lloyd. An American lecturer and 
writer (1847-1903) with the Chicago Tribune from 1872 to 
1885. He was secretary of the American Free Trade League. 
His published works include “The Strike of Millionaires 
Against Miners,” 1890, based on the Spring Valley (Ill.) coal 
strike of 1889; “Wealth Against Commonwealth,” 1894; “A 
Country Without Strikes: New Zealand,” 1900. 

128:19. Sir Horace Plunkett. An Irish statesman, born in 
1854. He was educated at Eton and Oxford and lived on a 
Montana ranch, 1879-89. He has worked untiringly for a free 
but united Ireland and striven in every way to aid the Irish 
peasant to better his condition. He recently visited America 
to study agricultural methods here. 

128:26. Paris Exposition. A great “world’s fair” held at 
Paris in 1900. 

129:9. Robert Owen. An English social reformer (1771- 
1858), born in Wales. He was a wealthy mill owner, who came 
to believe mills should be operated for the benefit of the 
workers and the community at large. He set up two social 




NOTES 


433 

communities on his own plan: one at Orbiston in Lanark¬ 
shire and the other at New Harmony, Ind. Both were 
failures. Owen is regarded as one of the founders of English 
socialism. 

138 :20. Crown prince of Belgium. The present King 
Albert. 

145:13. World’s Fair. The World’s Columbian Exposition, 
held at Jackson Park, Chicago, in 1893, was intended to 
commemorate the four-hundredth anniversary of the discovery 
of America by Columbus. The “Panic of ’93” struck the 
country at about that time and strikes abounded. Conditions 
all over the country were very bad, and lack of employment 
intensified the suffering among the poor. 

145:21. Trafalgar Square. A London square named from 
the Battle of Trafalgar, fought between the British fleet 
under Lord Nelson and the combined fleets of France and 
Spain, October 21, 1805. The English won, Napoleon’s sea 
power was shattered, but Nelson lost his life. The square 
contains an imposing granite column in memory of Nelson. 
Many public buildings center about the square, which is a 
favorite spot for mass meetings. 

145:22. Mr. Stead. W. T. Stead (1849-1912) was a British 
writer and social reformer, best known as editor of the Pall 
Mall Gazette. His visit to America in 1893 resulted in the 
book “ If Christ Came to Chicago,” which laid bare unspeakable 
conditions among the poor of Chicago, similar to his Maiden 
Tribute of Modern Babylon (See 64:17), with its terrible 
indictment of London. Mr. Stead died in the sinking of the 
great ocean liner, the Titanic. 

149:1. Charles Booth. An English statistician and writer 
on social questions, born in 1840. His ‘ Life and Labor of the 
People of London,” in ten volumes, 1891-1903, a storehouse of 
accurate social facts dealing chiefly with the people of East 
London, won him world-wide attention. He has taken an 


NOTES 


434 

active part in the move resulting in the English Old Age 
Pension Laws and has written a number of books on this 
subject. 

160:26. “this ribbon to stick in her coat. ,, See Browning’s 

The Lost Leader: 

“Just for a handful of silver he left us— 

Just for a riband to stick in his coat.” 

Miss Addams uses the phrase to indicate how the old woman, *1 
though receiving no financial returns from her inventions, 
could still flaunt the favorable opinions of the experts in 
the faces of her neighbors. 

162:18. Haymarket Riot. When the Chicago police 
attempted to break up a meeting of anarchists in Haymarket 
Square, Randolph Street, May 4, 1886, a bomb, thrown by 
an unidentified member, killed seven policemen and wounded 
twenty-seven. I he actual bomb thrower was never caught, 
but August Spies, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, and Albert 
Parsons were hanged as accomplices November 11, 1887. 
Louis Ling, sentenced to death, committed suicide in prison. 
Samuel Fielden and Michael Schwab, sentenced for life, and 
Oscar Neebe, for fifteen years, were pardoned by Governor 
Altgeld. 

163:6. Lyman Gage. An American financier, who was 
born in De Ruyter, N. Y., in 1836 and came to Chicago in 
1855. Eta was connected with various bank and trust com¬ 
panies and served as Secretary of the Treasury under both 
McKinley and Roosevelt, 1897-1902. He was president of the 
board of directors of the Chicago World’s Fair and twice 
president of the Civic Federation of Chicago. 

165:27. Henry George. An American economist (1839-97) 
born in Philadelphia. He learned the printer’s trade in Mel¬ 
bourne, Australia, where he had worked his way on a sailing 
vessel. Returning to San Francisco, he became a newspaper 
writer there. 1 he great fortunes acquired in California 


NOTES 


435 


through the rapid increase in land values fixed his attention 
on the land problem and caused him to formulate the theory, 
later worked out in “Our Land Policy,” 1871, and “Progress 
and Poverty,” 1879; namely, that the value of land represents 
a monopoly power, and that the entire burden of taxation 
should be levied on it, thus freeing industry from taxation 
and equalizing opportunity by destroying monopolistic ad¬ 
vantage. Out of this grew his “Single Tax Theory,” ardently 
advocated by his followers to the present day. 

166:4. Father Huntington. Frederick Dan Huntington 
(1819-1904), an American clergyman and writer, was the 
first Episcopal bishop of Central New York. His published 
works include “Lectures on Human Society,” i860, and “I he 
Golden Rule Applied to Business and Social Life,” 1892. 

167:12. Schopenhauer. Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) 
was a German philosopher whose writings are characterized 
by cynicism and a very low estimate of the average human 
being and particularly of woman. To him, the welfare of 
society was a subordinate aim, never to be allowed to dwarf 
the individual’s aim of the full realization of an ideal being. 
His philosophy was therefore a selfish one, seeking individual 
happiness no matter what the cost to society. Among his 
works are “The World as Will and Idea,” 1818, and “The Will 
in Nature,” 1836. 

168:12. “Utopia.” A book printed in Latin by Sir Thomas 
More, an English statesman (1478-1535) about 1516, though 
written some years before, described the kingdom of Utopia 
(literally “nowhere”), a fictitious country wherein were rem¬ 
edied all the evil conditions then existing in Europe. 1 he 
criticism was too outspoken for More to venture to publish 
the book in England or issue it in the English language. It 
was printed in Latin on the Continent and remained long 
untranslated. 1 he term Utopia has come to mean a purely 
ideal state or condition, impossible of attainment. 


NOTES 


436 

169:20. Buddhistic. Of or pertaining to the religious and 
ethical teachings of Buddha, “the enlightened/’ prince of an 
Aryan clan seated during the fifth century b.c. about fifty 
miles north of Benares, India. Self-conquest and universal 
charity are the main principles of the Buddhist teachings. 
From India, the Buddhist faith has spread to Thibet, Ceylon, 
Siam, and parts of China and Japan. 

173:21. Professor Herron. George D. Herron, born at 
Montezuma, Md., in 1862, was ordained in the Congregational^ 
ministry and became professor of applied Christianity at 
Iowa College in 1893. Opposition to his teachings, which 
were strongly socialistic, led to his resignation in 1900. He 
initiated social crusades in Chicago and New York, founded 
the Social Crusader , and lectured on “The Economics of the 
Kingdom of Heaven,” in which he advocated transforming the 
present economic order in conformity with the Christian prin¬ 
ciples of brotherhood. Expelled from the ministry, he went 
to Italy and has since devoted his time to writing. His best 
known works are “Between Caesar and Jesus,” 1899, “Why 
I Am a Socialist,” 1900, and “The Day of Judgment,” 1904. 

177:28. John Morley. An English statesman and author, 
born in 1838. He was associated editorially with the Morning 
Star , 1868 to 1870, the Fortnightly Review , 1867 to 1883, and 
Macmillan s Magazine , 1883. He was chief secretary for Ire¬ 
land under Gladstone in 1886, and out of this association grew 
his “Life of Gladstone” in 1900. He was a Boer sympathizer 
during the South African War and resigned from the Cabinet 
at the outbreak of the World War in August, 1914, because 
his convictions were opposed to war and he desired no re¬ 
sponsibility for British action against Germany after Belgium 
was invaded. He died September 23, 1923. 

178:14. Benjamin Kidd. An English sociologist, born in 
1858, who attracted much attention in 1894 by his book 
“Social Evolution.” In this, he declared that society should be 








NOTES 


437 

interpreted in terms of biology and pointed out that one of 
the conditions of progress is the conflict between private inter¬ 
est and social welfare, the struggle which eliminates the unfit. 

178:16. Victor Berger. Editor of the Milwaukee Leader , a 
socialist daily. He has written numerous essays and pam¬ 
phlets on social questions. He was elected to the Sixty-second 
Congress (1911-13) from the Fifth Wisconsin District, and 
was the first socialist ever elected to that body. Mr. Berger 
was born at Nieder Rebbuch, Austria-Hungary, in i860, and 
received his education in the university at Budapest and 
Vienna but came to America before being graduated. 

181:2. Engels. Friedrich Engels (1825-95) was a German 
socialist, who became interested in the Chartist and Owenist 
movements in England in 1842. He was a lifelong friend and 
fellow worker of Karl Marx and was a joint author of the 
Communist Manifesto of 1848. He took an active part in 
forming the International Workingmen’s Association in 1864. 
His “Condition of the Working Classes in England” first ap¬ 
peared in 1845. 

185:1. Mrs. Florence Kelley. Mrs. Kelley was state in¬ 
spector of factories for Illinois, 1893-7, and has been general 
secretary of the National Consumers’ League since 1899. 

186:22. Mrs. Henrotin. Ellen Martin, wife of Charles 
Henrotin, a Chicago banker, was vice president of the Con¬ 
gressional Auxiliary of the World’s Columbian Exposition, 
1904, and president of the General federation of Women’s 
Clubs, 1894-8. She was decorated by the Sultan of Turkey 
with the Order of Chefakat, 1893; made an Officier de 
l’Academie by the French Republic, 1899; and decorated as 
Chevalier de 1 ’Ordre de Leopold by the King of Belgium 111 
1904. 

190:18. Governor Altgeld. John Peter Altgeid, governor of 
Illinois from 1893 to 1897, achieved much notoriety in con¬ 
nection with his pardoning of the Haymarket anarchists. 


NOTES 


438 

197:2. Pullman strike. The Pullman strike in 1894 was a 
sympathetic strike undertaken by the American Railway 
Union in behalf of the employees of the Pullman Sleeping; 
Car Company, the object being to boycott all Pullman cars 
and prevent their use on all railways. Traffic was delayed and 
considerable violence occurred, especially in Chicago. Na¬ 
tional troops were brought into use by President Cleveland 
over protests of state governors. The president and other' 
officers of the railway unions were imprisoned through the 
use of the injunction, and the strike was a failure. Miss 
Addams refers later to the bewilderment and hurt feelings 
of George M. Pullman, who had built a model town for his 
employees and was himself a kindly and generous man, over 
the discontent of the workers. 

212:12. Brandeis brief. Louis Dembitz Brandeis, asso¬ 
ciate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 
1916, has consistently fought for the cause of the working 
people in monopoly cases. He was counsel for the people in 
cases involving the constitutionality of the Oregon and Illinois 
io-hour laws for working women, the Ohio 9-hour law, the 
California 8-hour law, and the Oregon minimum wage law. 

216:12. Professor Masurek. Thomas G. Masurek (com¬ 
monly spelled Masaryk), president of the newly-formed 
Czecho-Slovakian Republic, was a professor at the New 
Bohemian University at Prague, 1882, and opposed the en¬ 
croachment of Germany on Austria and the aggressive 
policy of Austria in the Balkans, especially the annexation of 
Bosnia. After the outbreak of the World War, he fled to 
England where he lectured at King’s College, Oxford, and 
organized the Czecho-Slovakian movement for independence. 

218:19. Doctor John Dewey. An American educator, 
born at Burlington, Vt., in 1859, whose views have revolu¬ 
tionized American school methods. At the time of which Miss 
Addams writes, he was director of the school of education at 


NOTES 439 

the then recently-founded University of Chicago. Since 1904, 
he has been professor of philosophy at Columbia University. 
His “School and Society,” 1899, and “Democracy and Educa¬ 
tion/’ 1916, have had a profound influence on American 
educational ideals. 

222:8. Passover Feast. I his was originally the feast of 
the unleavened bread, by which the ancient Israelites were 
accustomed to open the harvest season. No one tasted the 
new grain or parched fresh ears of corn until the first sheaf 
had been presented to Jehovah. Then all hastened to enjoy 
divine blessing by eating unleavened cakes without waiting 
for the dough to rise by fermentation. Later, a spring 
sacrifice of the firstlings of the flock became connected with 
the exodus from Egypt and the passage over the Red Sea, 
from which the waters were miraculously rolled back. The 
Passover of the time of Christ consisted of a sacrifice from the 
flock, presented at the sanctuary and eaten with unleavened 
bread. It was slain on the evening of the first day, but the 
use of unleavened bread continued for seven days. 

225:16. Field Museum. This museum, on the shore of 
Lake Michigan in Chicago, was founded by Marshall Field, 
the Chicago “merchant prince.’’ His gifts to the museum total 
$9,000,000. There are four departments: anthropology, 
geology, botany, and zoology. The working library contains 
50,000 volumes. 

226:2. Reredos. A screen or partition wall, usually orna¬ 
mented, behind an altar. 

227:20 Maggie Tulliver. The unfortunate heroine of 
George Eliot’s “The Mill on the Floss,’’ whose entire life 
was spent in renunciation and sacrifice of self to her family. 

235:5. Professor Du Bois. William Edward Du Bois 
is a negro editor and author. He was graduated from Fisk 
University (for negroes) at Nashville, lenn., and later from 
Harvard. He also studied at the University of Berlin. He 


44° NOTES 

was for a time professor of economics and history at Atlanta 
University. Since 1910, he has been director of publicity 
for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored 
People. 

235:18. Garibaldi’s birthday. Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807- 
82) was an Italian patriot, an associate of Mazzini. After 
Victor Emmanuel had defeated Francis II in 1861, Garibaldi, 
believing Rome must be wrested from the Pope before Italy 
could be unified, raised a force of volunteers to capture Rome. 
He was checked by Victor Emmanuel, who feared an attack 
on the Pope would bring about foreign intervention. 

242:3. Ben Tillet. A strong labor and socialist worker. He 
worked in a brick}^ard at eight and served on a fishing smack 
at twelve. He finally settled at the Docks and organized the 
Dockers’ Union,.of which he was for many years secretary. 

242:8. John Burns. A British labor leader, in Parliament 
from 1893 until 1908, when, by retaining under the Asquith 
government the office of president of the Local Government 
Board which he had held under the Campbell-Bannerman 
government since 1905, he displeased the more radical 
labor elements. 

242:20. Sir John Gorst. An English legislator, born in 
1835. He was Parliament from 1866 to 1868 and again 
from 1875 to 1906. 

242:23. Keir Hardie. An English labor leader, who worked 
in the coal mines from seven to twenty-four, finally becom¬ 
ing secretary of the Lanarkshire Miners’ Union. He edited 
the Cumnock Nezvs , 1882-6, and the Labor Leader , 1887-1903. 
He founded the Socialistic Independent Labor Party in 1903. 
Entering Parliament in 1892, he became leader of the Labor 
Party in the House of Commons in 1906. 

243:5. Robert Blatchford. An English newspaper man, 
born in Maidstone in 1851, at present joint editor of the 
Clarion. According to his own account he was “educated 









NOTES 


441 


nowhere,” was successively a soldier, a clerk, and a newspa¬ 
per man. His best known books are “Britain for the British,” 
1902, “God and My Neighbors,” 1903, and “Not Guilty, a 
Plea for the Bottom Dog,” 1905. 

243:6. Karl Marx. (1818-83.) A great economist and 
socialist, properly regarded as the founder of the modem 
socialist movement. Jointly with Friedrich Engels, Marx 
drew up in 1847 what is known as the “Communist Manifesto.” 
It was published in most of the languages of Europe and was 
known as the creed of the socialistic revolutionaries. Its 
chief measures are set forth here that advanced classes 
may, if the teacher thinks it profitable, trace their influence 
on legislation both in Europe and in America during the last 
half century. The points are: (1) abolition of property in 
land and the application of all rents to public purposes; (2) 
progressive (graduated) income tax; (3) abolition of all rights 
of inheritance; (4) confiscation of property of emigrants and 
rebels; (5) centralization of credit in the hands of the state by 
means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive 
monopoly; (6) government ownership of means of communi¬ 
cation and transportation; (7) extension of productive enter¬ 
prises by state reclamation of waste land and general im¬ 
provement of the soil; (8) compulsory labor with the estab¬ 
lishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture; 
(9) a combination of agriculture with manufacturing, tending 
to eliminate the distinction between town and country by a 
more even distribution of population; (10) free education 
with abolition of child labor in factories. 

243:7. Liebknecht. Wilhelm Liebknecht (1826-1900) was 
a German Social Democrat and agitator, who escaped to 
England after the Revolution of 1848 and was associated in 
the Communistbund with Marx and Engels. (See 181:2.) 
Returning to Germany in 1862, he wrote for socialist dailies, 
becoming editor of the Berlin Vorwaerts in 1890. He was 


442 


NOTES 


imprisoned for four months in 1895 on a charge of lese majeste’ y 
that is, uttering or publishing something reflecting upon the 
administration of the government or the person of the reigning 
sovereign—in this case the German “War Lord,” Wilhelm II. 

243:11. Bernard Shaw. A British critic, dramatist, and 
socialist, whose dramas deal with socialistic doctrine. “Mrs. 
Warren’s Profession,” 1893; “John Bull’s Other Island,” 1904; 
“Arms and the Man,” 1894; “Candida,” which is considered 
the best comedy since Sheridan; and “Man and Superman” 
present the best expositon of Shaw’s philosophy of life. He is 
noted for his destructive criticisms of society and institutions. 

243:13. Octavia Hill. An English social reformer (1836- 
1912), who early began efforts to improve the homes of Lon¬ 
don’s poor. She began work with Frederic Maurice, but later 
was associated with John Ruskin, who advanced money for 
purchasing houses for improvement or for erecting new ones. 
Miss Hill taught the poor to help themselves and inculcated 
the principles of cleanliness, order, and self-respect. Her 
writings comprise “The Homes of London’s Poor,” 1875, and 
“Our Common Land,” 1877. 

243:20. Walter Crane. An English artist, born in 1845, 
associated with William Morris in the revival of decorative 
arts and crafts in England. He published “Bases of Design,” 
1898, and “Line and Form,” 1900. 

243:28. “Industrial Democracy.” This book was published 
in 1897. Mr. Webb, who was born in 1859, was formerly a 
lecturer on political economy at the City of London College 
and Workingmen's College. He is at present professor of 
public administration at the University of London and has 
written many other books on social problems. 

243:28. John Hobson. An English social worker and writer 
born in 1868. 

244:6. Canon Ingram. Arthur Foley Winnington, born in 
1858, is an Anglican bishop, who in 1889 became head of 


NOTES 


443 

Oxford House, Bethnal Green. In 1896, he became dean of 
Spitalfields; in 1897, canon of St. Paul’s and Bishop of Stepney; 
in 1901, Bishop of London. “Church Difficulties,” 1896; 
“Work in Great Cities,” 1896; and “Banners of the Christian 
Faith,” 1899, are among his published works. 

244:19. Mrs. Humphry Ward. Mrs. Ward, who was born 
in 1851, is the granddaughter of the famous Doctor Arnold of 
Rugby. Her husband is art critic for the London Times. 
“Robert Elsmere,” 1888, a suggestive presentation of widely 
discussed religious problems, achieved much fame. She 
founded a settlement for social and philanthropic work at 
University Hall, London, in 1890, now known as the Passmore 
Edwards Settlement. In 1906 she founded evening play centers 
for children, since spread into fourteen of the poorest districts 
of London with an average weekly attendance of 30,000. 

244:23. Browning House. A settlement at Walworth of 
which Herbert Stead (1857—) was warden from 1894 to 1921. 
Mr. Stead was editor of the Independent and Nonconformist , 
1890-92, and assistant editor of the Review of Reviews , 1894- 
1912. He initiated a series of conferences with Charles Booth 
which resulted in the National Conference on Old Age Pen¬ 
sions, 1898; initiated Labor Week, 1910; commenced agitation 
for national Old Age Homes, 1913; and convened the League 
to Abolish War in 1916. His “Handbook of Young People’s 
Guilds” appeared in 1889; “No more War,” in 1917; “The Pro¬ 
letarian Gospel of Galilee” and “Unseen Leadership,” in 1922. 

245:8. South African War. Also known as the Boer War 
(1899-1902). It originated in the discontent of the foreign 
population of the South African Republic, mostly British 
subjects, who complained of having no political rights while 
owning most of the property and paying most of the taxes. 
The war ended with the Boers giving allegiance to the British 
Government, receiving in return full amnesty and return of 
their property. 


444 


NOTES 


245:16. Fair of Nijni-Novgorod. A great commercial fair 
held yearly at Nijni-Novgorcd, at the junction of the Oka 
and Volga rivers, 276 miles east of Moscow. Here goods from 
all parts of Russia were exchanged as well as wares imported 
from Siberia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Persia. 

245:21. Korolenko. Vladimir Korolenko, born in 1859, is a 
Russian writer, who was exiled to Siberia for revolutionary 
ideas from 1879 to 1885. His psychological novel, “The Blind 
Musician,” 1886, put him in the front rank of Russian writers. ' 
His subsequent fiction, however, has been confined to short 
stories. 

246:4. Aylmer Maude. An English writer, interested in 
social problems, born in 1858. He lived in Russia 1877-80 
and 1890-97. He helped to arrange for the migration of the 
Doukhobors, a peculiar Russian religious sect, to Canada in 
1898. He was lecturer to north Russia for the Y. M. C. A. 
in 1918-9. Most of his published works deal with Russia and 
Russian problems and writers, particularly with Tolstoy’s 
life and works. 

252:27. Ghetto. A quarter to which Jews are restricted 
or in which they live in large numbers. The ghetto is a relic 
of medievalism, when Jews were not permitted in the cities 
except within portions that were walled. All the Jews were 
compelled to be “within the pale” by a set hour, when the 
gates were barred. The term is loosely used to-day to indi-. 
cate a part of a community largely given over to Jews. 

264:2. Casus belli. A Latin phrase meaning “cause of 

„ 99 

war. 

269:1. Warden of Toynbee Hall. See 102:24. 

273:14. Dr. Alice Hamilton. An American bacteriologist 
(1869—), a graduate of the University of Michigan, who has 
done graduate research work at Leipsic, Munich, Johns 
Hopkins University, the University of Chicago, and the 
Pasteur Institute in Paris. From 1899 to 1902, she was pro- 



NOTES 


445 

fessor of pathology at Northwestern University, Evanston, 
Ill. In 1910, she was investigator for the Illinois Commission 
on Industrial Diseases, and in 192021, she investigated 
industrial poisons for the Department of Labor. She has 
been assistant professor of industrial medicine at the Harvard 
Medical School since 1919. 

276:5. Mrs. Britton. Mrs. Gertrude Howe Britton, born 
in Chicago in 1871, is a social worker, who has been a resident 
of Hull-House since 1895. She was the first officer of the 
Juvenile Protective Association and a member of the Chicago 
Board of Education, 1913-16. She has been superintendent of 
the Bureau of Social Service for Cook County since 1916. 

277:1. Brgograph. From erg, a theoretical unit of work or 
energy, being the work done by a dyne (unit of force) working 
through a centimeter of space, and grapho , I write. 

279:18. Dr. Graham Taylor. An American sociologist, 
born at Schenectady, N. Y., in 1857. He was ordained in the 
Dutch .Reformed ministry, 1873. Since 1892, he has been 
professor of social economics at the Chicago Theological 
Seminary. He was the founder and resident warden of the 
Chicago Commons Social Settlement in 1894. He is president 
of the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy and asso¬ 
ciate editor of the Survey. In 1913, he published “Religion in 
Social Action.” 

281:12. Miss McDowell. Mary McDowell, a member of 
the University of Chicago faculty, was born in 1854. She is 
a noted settlement worker and since 1893 has been director 
of the Chicago Settlement in the stockyards district. She is 
also director of the Frederick Douglass Center and of the 
Immigrants* Protective League. 

287:3. Miss Julia Lathrop. An active worker in various 
reform movements, born at Rockford, Ill., 1858. During her 
connections with Hull-House, she has made a splendid study 
of the care of the insane, better education of children, and 


446 NOTES 

juvenile court laws. She has several times visited foreign 
countries to observe methods employed there. Her public 
services include: member of the Illinois State Board of 
Charities, 1893-1909; former president of the Illinois Society 
for Mental Hygiene; former vice president of the Chicago 
School of Civics and Philanthropy; former chief of Children’s 
Bureau, Department of Labor, Washington. During the 
absence of Miss Addams on her present world tour in the 
interests of peace, Miss Lathrop is acting head of Hull-House. 
A recent Congress of American Women held at Baltimore 
selected Miss Lathrop as the foremost American woman in 
child welfare work. 

295:8. Governor Pingree. Hazen Senter Pingree (1842- 

1901) , while mayor of Detroit, 1890-98, developed the plan 
of assigning the vacant lands of the city to the poor for culti¬ 
vating potatoes, thereby earning the nickname “Potato 
Pingree.” He was Republican governor of Michigan in 1896, 
resigning in 1900. 

302:7. Mayor Dunne. Edward Fitzsimmons Dunne, a 
Chicago attorney, born in Waterville, Conn., 1843, was 
mayor of Chicago, 1905-7. He served as governor of Illinois 
from 1913 to 1917. 

303:10. Colonel Parker. Francis Wayland Parker (1837- 

1902) was an American educator who served in the Civil War 
and rose to the rank of colonel. He was principal of the Cook 
County Normal School in 1883; president of the Chicago 
Normal school in 1896; and president of the Chicago Institute 
in 1899. 

313:14. World’s Fair at St. Louis. Held at St. Louis, Mo., 
in 1904, in commemoration of the one-hundredth anniversary 
of the purchase of the Louisiana Territory by President 
Jefferson in 1803. 

314:6. “Antigone.” A play by Sophocles, the great Greek 
dramatist (495-406 b.c.), having for its heroine Antigone, 




NOTES 


447 

daughter of Oedipus, King of Thebes, who put out his eyes 
and resigned his throne on finding he had unwittingly married 
his mother. Antigone was noted for her fidelity to her blind 
father and also for her devotion in burying the body of her 
brother, Polynices, contrary to Theban edict. For this, she 
was sentenced to be buried alive in a vault. 

318:22. Royce. Josiah Royce, born in California in 1855, 
was from 1914 to the time of his death professor of natural 
religion, moral philosophy, and civil polity at Harvard, 
where he had been a teacher since 1885. Both as an instructor 
and a writer, he has exercised a profound influence on Amer¬ 
ican thought. 

321:14. Mardi Gras. Literally “fat Tuesday,” a day of 
feasting and merrymaking preceding the Lenten season, 
which opens the following day, Ash Wednesday, and con¬ 
tinues for forty days. 

330:25. Bronte sisters. Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte 
were the daughters of a country clergyman in the north of 
England. All were writers, Charlotte being the most talented. 
They drew their characters from the narrow life about them 
with remarkable fidelity, and their works are characterized 
by a fierce glow of fire and imagination and depths of human 
character revealed through suffering. Charlotte (1816-55) 
is best known for her novel “Jane Eyre”; “The Professor” 
and “Shirley” having also attracted much attention. Emily’s 
best work is “Wuthering Heights”; Anne’s is “Agnes Grey.” 

333 :2 5- <$ As more exposed . . .” These lines are dedicated to 
Mrs. Alzina Parsons Stevens, one of the early Hull-House 
residents, who was president of the Woman’s Club from 1898 
to 1900. Because of her early and hard experiences as a 
factory worker, she identified herself throughout her life 
with the labor movement, especially with reference to children. 
She was a member of the Knights of Labor and was influential 
in organizing the Women’s Union Label League, the first 


NOTES 


448 




women’s organization that succeeded the Knights of Labor. 
She was one of the first to start the Juvenile Court movement 
in Chicago and one of three who founded the Chicago Parental 
School. 

334:12. Mrs. Bowen. (See Introduction.) Louise de Koven 
Bowen (Mrs. Joseph Bowen) is a well-known Chicago social 
worker, born in 1859. She has served as president of the 
juvenile Protective Association, vice president of the United j 
Charities of Chicago, treasurer of Hull-House, and director 
of the School of Civics and Philanthropy. 

335:16. Palace of Delight. See 110:13. 

339:4. Mr. and Mrs. Barnett See 102:24. 

345:4. Yiddish poet. Morris Rosenfeld, author of “The 
Sweatshop,” w T as born in Poland in 1862. Coming to New 
York to toil in the gloomy sweatshops, he poured out his 
sense of suffering and wrongs in poems written in Yiddish 
and published first in the Yiddish papers of New York’s 
Ghetto and later in book form. Professor Leo Wiener of 
Columbia University, who discusses Rosenfeld in his excellent 
study of contemporary Yiddish writers, “The History of 
Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth Century,” considers 
Rosenfeld the most striking figure among Yiddish writers in 
America at the close of the nineteenth century. “Rosenfeld’s 
poetry will survive as a witness of that lowermost hell which 
political persecution, religious and racial hatred, and indus¬ 
trial oppression have created for the Jew at the end of our 
enlightened nineteenth century,” writes Professor Wiener. 

354:6. “Ajax of Sophocles.” A drama based on the life of 
the Greek legendary hero, Ajax, who was second only to 
Achilles in bravery. During the siege of Troy, when the armor 
of the dead Hector was awarded to Ulysses instead of to 
himself, Ajax turned mad from vexation and stabbed himself. 

354 :i 5 - “Electra.” Probably the Electro of Sophocles, 
since his Ajax was also presented. Euripides has also taken 





NOTES 


449 

Electra, daughter of Agamemnon and the faithless Clytem- 
nestra and sister of Orestes and Iphigenia, for the heroine of 
one of his dramas. 

356:28. Passion Play at Oberammergau. This is a play 
representing scenes from the life of Christ, each scene being 
prefaced by one of similar import from the Old Testament. 
It h as been given, with occasional breaks, every ten years 
since 1633 by the inhabitants of the little Bavarian village, 
who in that year first gave the play in the hope of staying 
the plague which was then raging. About 700 actors are 
required, all belonging to the village. Each performance 
lasts nine hours, with a short intermission at noon. It is held 
in an open-air theater each Sunday during the summer. 
Since the villagers regard the performance as a solemn act 
of religious worship, all performances are characterized by 
the greatest reverence. 

359:15. Talmudic lore. The “Talmud” is the Hebrew book 
of laws. There are two versions, the Palestinian, embodying 
the discussions of the laws by hundreds of doctors living in 
Palestine, chiefly in Galilee, from the end of the second to 
the beginning of the fifth century. The Babylonian embodies 
similar discussions by Babylonian doctors from about the year 
190 to the end of the sixth century. The purpose of these dis¬ 
cussions is to exhibit the development of “oral law'’ and the 
views taken of this development by rabbis of various times. 
The doctors discuss the correctness of the text and meanings 
of the laws and introduce the whole body of tradition handed 
down to their time. The “Talmud” therefore furnishes a rich 
background for Jewish history down to the end of the sixth 
century a.d. 

360:3. Ibsen. Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) was a Norwegian 
dramatist, widety read and discussed in the United States. 
His plays are studies in human responsibility under modern 
conditions, which in many points Ibsen considers danger- 


NOTES 


450 


ously diseased. He has become ‘'the poet of protest.” He 
writes of vice with loathing and lays bare the causes of evils 
but prescribes no remedies. His work marks a new stage in 
dramatic art, since he is thoroughly realistic and unconven¬ 
tional. Representative Ibsen plays are: “Pillars of Society,” 
1877; “The Doll’s House,” 1879; “Ghosts,” 1881; “Rosmer- 
holm,” 1886; “Hedda Gabler,” 1890; “Little Eyolf,” 1894; 
“When We Dead Awaken,” 1900. 

360:4. Yeats. William Butler Yeats is an Irish writer/ 
born in Dublin in 1865. His poetry has been very popular in 
America, particularly his “Plays for an Irish Theater,” 1912. 

360:15. Wagnerian combination. Probably a reference to 
the methods of the school conducted at Baireuth by Frau 
Cosima Wagner, widow of Richard Wagner (1813-83), the 
great German dramatic composer and reformer of musical 
drama. 

362:4. Phidias. A great Greek sculptor, born about 500 
b.c. His famous Parthenon statue of Athene, done in ivory 
and gold, was completed in 438. His masterpiece was the 
the great gold and ivory statue of Zeus in the newly-erected 
temple at Olympia, where he died. 

362:6. David. King David, who was called from tending 
his father’s flocks to rule over Israel. 

362:7. St. Francis. Francis of Assisi in Italy (1182-1226), 
founder of the order of Franciscans. His chief passion was a 
consuming spirit of self-sacrifice and devotion to others. 
Hence he sought out the lepers, loathsome and hitherto 
abhorred, and kissed them and ministered to their wants. 

362:8. Patrick. Patron saint of Ireland, who is reputed 
to have freed the island from snakes. As a youth of fifteen, 
he was carried off from the neighborhood at the head of the 
Solway and sold as a slave on the opposite coast of Ireland, 
by the Scots and Piets during one of their raids about 411 a.d. 


fing after six years, he prepared himself for the priest- 


NOTES 


45 1 

hood, probably at St. Niman’s Monastery, and returned to 
Ireland as a missionary. His death is said to have occurred 
in 469 a.d. 

362:10. Hans Sachs. 1 he cobbler poet of Germany, born 
at Nuremburg in 1494. Sachs was an ardent follower of 
Luther, and his hymns are the best of the thousands of poems 
written by him. He was the son of a shoemaker and was 
himself trained to the same calling. 

362:11. Jeanne d’Arc. Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, 
was born in 1411 in the village of Domremy. She was a girl 
of a deeply religious nature, who became impressed with the 
prophecy that the calamities which fell on France through 
the depravity of a woman should be removed by the agency 
of a chaste virgin who should come from the forest of Dom¬ 
remy. Led by her “voices,” she guided the forces of France 
to victory until she was betrayed into the hands of the Eng¬ 
lish and burned by them as a witch, May 30, 1431. 

362:18. William Morris. An English socialist, poet, and 
artist (1834-96). Educated at Oxford, he intended to found 
a religious brotherhood but instead became an architect. 
In 1861, in connection with Rossetti, Burne-Jones, and others, 
he established a firm for the designing and manufacturing 
of artistic furniture and household decorations. Later he 
took up the manufacture of tapestry, dyeing, book illum¬ 
inating, and printing. In 1890, he founded the famous Kelm- 
scott Press at Hammersmith. For the practical advancement 
of the lesser arts and of the doctrine that all things should be 
made beautiful, Morris did more than any other man of his 
time. In 1885, he became an active socialist and delivered 
lectures to workingmen as well as contributed to the Common¬ 
weal , the organ of the Socialist League. 

362:18. Walt Whitman. An eccentric American poet 
(1819-92) whose poems, written on unconventional subjects 
in unrhymed, irregular verse, aroused a storm of discussion. 


NOTES 


452 

His writings are “not art, but propaganda—philosophic, 
sociopolitical, artistic.” He himself lived the life he advocated, 
‘.ramping the open in enjoyment of nature, scorning the 
refinements of society. “Leaves of Grass,” a collection of his 
irregular verse, is his best-known work. 

362:19. Pasteur. Louis Pasteur (1822-1905) was an 
eminent French chemist and bacteriologist, whose hundredth 
anniversary was recently celebrated by his countrymen. -|i 
His studies in pathological research, led to the preparation 
of vaccines to be used in making man and the higher animals 
immune to such diseases as anthrax, fowl cholera, diphtheria, 
and hydrophobia. Milk is “pasteurized” to destroy germs 
because of Pasteur’s discoveries in research. 

362:26. Florence Nightingale. Miss Nightingale (1820- 
1910) was the pioneer of the army of trained nurses. 
Hearing of the sufferings of the English soldiers during the 
Crimean War, she sailed for the Crimea in 1854 with a force 
of thirty-eight volunteer nurses. Despite the prejudice against 
women nurses, Miss Nightingale’s little band did such heroic 
work as to call forth general admiration. Her own nightly 
rounds of the wards, lamp in hand, inspired Longfellow’s 
beautiful poem, Santa Filomena , with its picture of the 
“lady with the lamp.” The British Government gave her 
£50,000, with which she founded a home for training 
nurses. Her influence and example led to the founding 
of the Red Cross Society. 

364:8. Dante. Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was the great¬ 
est of the Italian poets. He is best known for nis “Divine 
Comedy,” with its vivid pictures of purgatory and hell, as con¬ 
ceived by the mediaeval mind. This great work was completed 
only a short time before his death. He stands among the 
first of the world’s greatest authors. 

364:11. Pre-Raphaelites. A name applied to a school or 
group that arose in England about the middle of the nine- 





NOTES 


453 


teenth century and accomplished great results both in art 
and in literature. The members sought their inspiration in 
the art of the age preceding Raphael, a time when art was 
simple, sincere, and religious. William Morris owed much of 
his inspiration to his connection with this movement. 

365:4. Kishinev. The capital of the province of Bessarabia 
in Russia, eighty-six miles northwest of Odessa on the Dniester 
'River. In 1912, 41 per cent of the population of 125,876 was 
Jewish. In 1903, the town was the scene of an unprovoked 
massacre of J ewish inhabitants by a mob, with the approval 
of the authorities. This was the first of a series of pogroms , 
or slaughters, throughout Russia, extending over a series of 
years. A second massacre occurred at Kishinev in 1905. 

366:11. Russian Duma. (Douma.) The Russian parlia¬ 
ment, created by inperial edict in 1905. Previous to that 
time, Russia had been an absolute monarchy, the will of the 
Czar being uncurbed by any legislative body. 

366:13. MadameBreshkovsky. Ekaterina Breshkovskaya, 
“the grandmother of the Russian Revolution,” was born of 
well-to-do parents in 1843. Being brought up in the country, 
she sympathized with the peasants, as did Tolstoy. At 
twenty-five, she left her husband and child “to preach the 
gospel of liberty.” Four years later she was arrested and 
sentenced to twenty-two years in Siberia. She returned to 
Russia in 1896, and at once started the Social Revolution. 
She visited America in 1904 and was again sent to Siberia 
on her return. Freed by the Revolution of 1917? she returned 
to Russia to renew her work among the common people. 
Despite her enfeebled condition, due to her years and long 
confinement, she at once set about establishing printing press¬ 
es in the more populous centers of Russia for circulating 
further propaganda among the peasants. 

366:14. St. Peter and St. Paul. Originally a fortress on 
Peterburgsky Island, opposite the Winter Palace in St. 


NOTES 


454 


Petersburg (Petrograd). At the time of which Miss Addarns 
writes, it was used as a state prison. “Imprisoned in St. 
Peter and St. Paul” meant the first step on the road to Si¬ 
beria or the gallows for the Russian political offender. 

366:16. Prince Kropotkin. A Russian geographer and 
anarchist, born in 1842. His interest in social reforms grew 
out of his observation of the unhappy economic conditions, 
particularly among the peasantry, in the course of his geo¬ 
graphic observations in various parts of Russia, including i 
Siberia and Finland. When the government refused to remedy 
conditions, Kropotkin resolved to devote his life to the solving 
of social problems. He soon joined the anarchists, and has 
several times been imprisoned. Since 1896, he has made his 
home in England. 

366 :22. Assassination of McKinley. William McKinley, 
President of the United States from 1897 to 1901, was shot 
by Leon Czolgosz while holding a reception in the Music 
Hall of the Pan-American Congress at Buffalo, N. Y., 
September 6, 1901, six months after his second inauguration. 
Mr. McKinley was born in 1843. 

368:19. Bakunin. Mikhail Bakunin (1814-76) was a 
Russian agitator and writer and founder of militant anarch¬ 
ism, which proposed the overthrow of all established forms of 
government. He took part in various German outbreaks, 
1841-50, and was condemned to death, first by the Saxon, 
later by the Austrian, and finally by the Russian Government. 
He was sent to Siberia for life in 1855 but escaped to Japan 
and thence through America to England in 1859. Here he 
was associated with Marx and Engels and founded the 
Social Democratic Alliance in 1869. He was expelled from 
England in 1872 and retired to Switzerland. 

375 :2 o* Prima facie. A latin phrase meaning “at first 
sight.” Prima facie evidence is evidence which, without 
minute examination into its merits, seems plausible or correct, 


NOTES 


455 

although closer investigation may prove it entirely the op¬ 
posite. 

378:2. Edelstadt group. An American anarchist group, 
which originated in New York under the leadership of David 
Edelstadt, a young Jewish poet, who died not long after the 
period of which Miss Addams writes. Edelstadt, who wrote 
in Yiddish, was known as “the poet of the Anarchist Party.” 
His followers were mostly of the milder “literary” type. His 
verses were chiefly in praise of anarchism and the heroes of 
freedom who had fallen in unequal combat. Professor Leo 
Wiener says of Edelstadt in his “History of Yiddish Litera¬ 
ture in the Nineteenth Century,” “His poems seem to be 
written, not because he was a poet, but because he belongs 
to the Anarchistic Party.” 

381:21. Puritans. The name applied to seceders from the 
English Church, so called because they rejected all human 
tradition and interference in religion, acknowledging the sole 
authority of the “pure word of God,” without “note or com¬ 
ment.” Their motto was, “The Bible, the whole Bible, and 
nothing but the Bible.” New England was settled largely 
by the Puritans. 

381:21. Lafayette. Consult any text on American history 
for the services of Lafayette during the American Revolution. 
Recall also the wave of sentiment that swept France and 
America more than a hundred years later, when General 
John Pershing, commander-in-chief of the American Expedi¬ 
tionary Forces aiding France in her struggle for life against 
the Germans, stood at the the tomb of Lafayette. The simple 
phrase, “Lafayette, we are here!” uttered then by Colonel 
C. E. Stanton, expressed the gratitude of a whole nation to 
the gallant young Frenchman who had swung France to the 
aid of America in her hour of need. 

381:22. Carl Schurz. A German-American soldier, polit¬ 
ical leader, and journalist, who came to America in 1852 by 




NOTES 


456 

way of London, where he had escaped after taking part in the 
Revolution of 1848. He rose to the rank of major general 
during the Civil War. He took up journalism and founded 
the Detroit Post in 1866 and was editor with Joseph Pulitzer 
of the Westliche Post , a St. Louis German paper, 1869-75. 
From 1881 to 1883 he was editor and part owner of the New 
York Evening Post. Mr. Schurz, who was born in 1829, 
held many important political positions. He died in 1906. 

382:9. Cavour and Bismarck. Count Cavour (1810-61) 
was an Italian statesman, called “the regenerator of Italy” 
and considered one of the greatest of modern statesmen. It 
was due chiefly to Cavour that Italy recovered her national 
rights and led the way in two of the most beneficent revolutions 
(1830 and 1848) that have taken place in the history of the 
world. Prince Karl Otto von Bismarck (1815-98) was known 
as the “Iron Chancellor of Germany.” It was largely through 
his efforts that the unification of the modern German mon¬ 
archy was achieved. Bismarck became first chancellor of the 
new German Empire. His sway remained unbroken until 
the accession of William II in 1888. Two autocrats came into 
collision, and Bismarck resigned, after numerous quarrels, in 
March, 1890. 

384:11. Vladimir Bourtzeff . . . Azeff. Bourtzeff, still a 
social revolutionist, is living in Paris, where he violently 
opposes the methods of the present Russian revolutionists. 
For a time, he edited a magazine, Byloe (The Past). Azeff, 
who posed as a revolutionist in order to gain the confidence 
of his victims and betray them to the police, was afterward 
shot by the revolutionaries. 

384:21. Gorki. Maxim Gorki (also Gorky) is a Russian 
writer, born in 1868. He has several times been arrested for 
his -revolutionary sympathies. His visit to the United States 
in 1906 to obtain funds for Russian freedom was ruined by 
the incidents referred to by Miss Addams, and he was com- 


NOTES 


457 


pelled to abandon his tour. His novels are based chiefly on 
life in the underworld, which he describes with startling 
fidelity. 

387:13. Giordano Bruno. An Italian philosopher (1548- 
1600), whose philosophy took the form of attacks upon estab¬ 
lished religion. His “Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast” 
represents the monks as pedants who would destroy all joy on 
. earth but who are themselves greedy, dissolute, and breeders 
of dissensions and squabbles. It scoffs at the mysteries of 
faith, puts the Jewish records of the Old Testament on a level 
with the Greek myths, and laughs at the miracles of the New 
Testament. Bruno was arrested by the agents of the In¬ 
quisition, and, after seven years of imprisonment, burned 
at the stake. 

389:9. Amiel. Henri Frederic Amiel (1821-81) was a Swiss 
author, best known for his “Fragments of an Intimate Diary,” 
wherein he sets down freely his shortcomings and errors. 

395:13. Jean Valjean. Valjean was the hero of Victor 
Hugo’s “Les Miserables.” Out of work and desperate, he 
stole a loaf of bread to feed the seven starving children of his 
widowed sister. For this he was cast into prison. Escaping 
after nineteen years, through a simple invention he amassed 
great wealth, which he devoted to helping the needy and the 
oppressed, though he himself lived constantly within the 
shadow of the law. 

399:6. Rivaling Werther. Werther was the hero of Goethe’s 
“Sorrows of Werther,” a highly-sentimental German romance, 
published in 1774. 

405:8. Olympian winners. The Olympic games were held 
every fourth year in early Grecian times. While the first 
recorded list of winners dates from 776 b.c., the games were 
instituted much earlier. No one not of Greek blood and no 
one convicted of a crime or of impiety might participate, 
since the games were of a highly religious nature, the display 



458 


NOTES 


of manly strength being thought pleasing to the gods. The 
winner received only a wreath of wild olive at Olympia, but 
at home enjoyed the gifts and veneration of his fellow citizens. 
Poets recited his victories in odes, and sculptors reproduced 
them in stone and marble. To the end of his days, he re¬ 
mained a distinguished man. 


STUDY QUESTIONS 

Chapter I. i. Why does Miss Addams center all her 
earlier experiences around her father? 

2. At what age did Miss Addams first show her interest in 
the poor and unfortunate? 

3. What two things mentioned by Miss Addams in this 
chapter help to explain the close tie between the little girl 
and her father? 

4. What do you know of the beliefs of the Quakers that 
will explain why the child found the religious atmosphere of 
her home different from that of the others of her community? 

5. Sum up your impressions of Mr. Addams from the in¬ 
cidents related in this chapter. Try to find a single apt word 
or phrase to express each quality. 

6. Can you find a sentence in this chapter that will show 
why Miss Addams’s efforts during the World War were 
directed toward peace and toward a better understanding 
among all nations? 

Chapter II. 1. Name the various ways in which the 
Civil War was impressed upon the minds of the Addams 
children. 

2. What resemblance did the little child see between “Old 
Abe,” the Wisconsin war eagle, and Abraham Lincoln? 

3. How does the atmosphere at Rockford, as explained in 
this chapter, help us to understand Miss Addams’s devotion 
to an ideal later? 

4. What facts does tne author give to show that the girls 
of her group were in earnest? 

459 


460 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

5. Why did Miss Addams not become a foreign mission¬ 
ary? 

In what way may her later labors at Hull-House be 
termed “missionary work”? 

6. In what ways was life in a girl’s school in the ’70’s dif¬ 
ferent from that of the present day? 

7. Why does Miss Addams relate the incident of the orator¬ 
ical contest? 

¥8. What does Miss Addams consider the best moral train¬ 
ing she received at Rockford? Why? 

9. Relate the trade union incident, and point out the in¬ 
consistency in the action of the members. What conviction 
did Miss Addams receive from the incident? 

10. What career had the author decided upon for herself 
while in school? How much of her plans did she carry out? 

11. How did Miss Addams show her interest in scientific 
study? What did she believe women might gain from such 
study? 

Chapter IV. 1. After reading this chapter, explain why 
the author named it “The Snare of Preparation.” 

2. Recount Miss Addams’s London experiences and show 
how they were unconsciously helping to direct her toward 
her later work at Hull-House. 

Give Miss Addams’s impression of the effect of college 
education upon the women of her day. Has the nature of 
education for women changed since that time? Is there still 
room for improvement? 

4. What was the mistake made by the American mother 
who was keeping her daughter abroad for a musical educa¬ 
tion ? 

5. Why did Miss Addams lose interest in Prince Albert 
and his tutor? Was she justified? 

6. Why was she so interested in the work of Diirer? 


STUDY QUESTIONS 461 

7. How does Miss Addams explain her formal entrance 
into the church? Are her reasons good? 

Chapter V. 1. Why did Professor Davidson oppose 
Miss Addams’s settlement plan? What caused his later 
change of attitude? 

/ 2. State the theory on which Hull-House was opened, and 
explain it in your own words. 

3. Why were the founders of Hull-House so careful in its 
furnishings? 

4. Repeat Miss Addams’s description of Halsted Street, 
and tell of the changes of the first twenty years. What 
other changes in the last fourteen years? (See Preface.) 

5. What is the “the idea underlying our self-govern¬ 
ment” ? 

6. What class of tenement house owners did Miss Addams 
find hardest to deal with? Why? 

7. To what class of people did Hull-House make its first 
appeal? Why? 

8. What were the various means used to attract boys to 
Hull-House? Girls? In what ways was it made attractive 
to older persons? 

9. What does Miss Addams consider “the simple human 
foundations which are certainly essential for continuous liv¬ 
ing among the poor”? 

10. Give the purpose of Hull-House as stated in the char¬ 
ter. Prove from the description of conditions in this 
chapter that such a place was needed. 

Chapter VI. 1. Why does Miss Addams reproduce an 
address delivered in 1892? 

2. Repeat the three motives which Miss Addams believes 
urge educated young people to take up settlement work. 

3. Why can settlement work “stand for no political or 
social propaganda”? 


462 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 


4. What are the duties of a resident at a settlement 
house, as set forth in this address? 


Chapter VII. 1. Why was the Hull-House coffee-house 


opened? How did the residents prepare themselves to make 
it useful? Why did the food sales go slowly at first? 

2. Recount the Hull-House Cooperative Coal Associa¬ 
tion experiment. Why did it fail? 

3. What was the next cooperative experiment? Why was. 
it more successful? 

4. How w r ere the Hull-House experimenters treated by the 
public at first? What caused a change of attitude later? 

5. Why did Miss Addams refuse the first offer of funds 
for the clubhouse? Do you approve of her stand? Why? 

6. Name in order the various additions to Hull-House 
facilities mentioned in this chapter and tell how each was 
made possible. 

Chapter VIII. 1. In what way did Hull-House make life 
more bearable for the old women in the County Infirmary? 

2. Do you know whether your county has a poor farm? 
If so, where is it located? Can you describe it? 

3. What is the work of the Visiting Nurse Association? 

4. Relate Miss Addams’s experience on the committee 
dealing with the unemployment situation in 1893. 

5. Cite instances showing the kindness of the poor to¬ 
ward one nnntlier 



following: “ 1 he Settlement is valuable 


as an information and interpretive bureau.” 

7. Describe the beginnings of the day nursery. 

8. How is this work now carried on? 

9. Why does Miss Addams relate the story of “Goosie”? 
Chapter IX. 1. Explain the difference between a socialist 

and an anarchist. 

2. Sum up Miss Addams’s statement of the creed of each. 





STUDY QUESTIONS 463 

3. Name the two classes into which Miss Addams divides 
the Chicago of her day? 

4. Restate the business man’s reasons for distrusting the 
reformer. 

5. How does Miss Addams characterize the decade from 
1890 to 1900 in Chicago? 

6. Mention important movements with which she had 
been connected during that time. 

Chapter X. I. Recount instances showing the evil effects 

of child labor. 

2. What has your state done to prevent such things 
happening? 

3. Has any national law on this subject been passed 
since Miss Addams wrote this? 

4. Account for the opposition to the passage of the 
Illinois Factory Regulation law? 

5. Why did Miss Addams favor an 8-hour law for working 
women? Has your state such a law? 

6. Explain “sweatshop.” Why would such a system 
naturally flourish among foreigners? 

7. Why did Miss Addams help organize labor unions 
among working women? How does she explain the close 
relation of the Settlement to all labor troubles? 

Chapter XI. I. Give the origin of the Hull-House 
labor museum. 

2. What did Miss Addams find back of the break between 
immigrant parents and their American-trained children? 

3. How can cooking and sewing, as taught in the public 
schools, help to Americanize a foreign family? 

4. How can America hope to receive anything of value 
rrom the immigrant? 

Chapter XII. i. Why did Miss Addams go to visit 
Tolstoy? 


464 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

2. What resolution did she make while there? Why die 
she fail to keep her resolution on her return? 

3. Can you see why colonies founded on Tolstoy’s theories 
would naturally fail? 

Chapter XIII. 1. Describe Miss Addams’s fight foi 
better sanitation. 

2. How was she able to secure the cooperation of the 

women of the neighborhood? The children? - 1 ) 

3. How is garbage removed in your district? 

4. Why did Miss Addams fight for better housing condi¬ 
tions? 

5. Mention other public services rendered by Hull-House,; c 
as described in this chapter. 

Chapter XIV. I. How did Hull-House residents come to 1 
accept city, state, and county offices? 

2. Name some of the offices held. 

3. Mention other civic enterprises in which Hull-House 
cooperated. 

4. Describe the campaign against the “the corrupt aider- 
man.” 

5. Why did it fail? 

6. What does this show as to the necessity for investigat¬ 
ing men for whom we are called upon to vote? 

7. Why does Miss Addams favor a civil service examina¬ 
tion as a means of selecting “public servants”? 

8. Sum up the work of the Juvenile Protective Associa¬ 
tion. 

9. Why did Miss Addams accept a position as member of 
the Chicago Board of Education? 

10. Why did she find it impossible to secure satisfactory 
results? 

11. What was the final outcome of the attempt to “take 
the schools out of politics”? 









STUDY QUESTIONS 465 

12. What part did the Chicago newspapers take in the 
struggle? Why? 

13. Give the reasons assigned by various groups of women 
for wanting the right to vote. Comment on each. 

Chapter XV. 1. Classify the different Hull-House clubs 
and discuss the purpose of each. 

2. In what ways did the clubs help to inspire their mem¬ 
bers to higher things? 

3. -Why did Hull-House find a need for recreational clubs? 

4. Explain the work of the social extension committee. 

5. How do the experiences of the club members react up¬ 
on the lives of their own family circle? 

6. Why did the English visitor accuse Americans of being 
indifferent to social conditions? 

7. What has your community done to investigate, with a 
view to bettering, the conditions under which the masses of 
the people must live? 

8. Can you name any organizations for social betterment 
in your community, or give instances of good accomplished 
by them? 

Chapter XVI. 1. Why did the Hull-House residents 
hold art exhibits? How did the foreign visitors regard the 
exhibits? Why were the exhibits finally discontinued? 

2. Describe the work in arts and crafts at Hull-House. 

3. In what way do the music classes minister to the needs 
of the Hull-House district? What was often the effect of the 
industrial world on the talent uncovered in the school? 

4. Give the three ends to be achieved by the introduction 
of dramatic work at Hull-House. Give instances to show 
that each goal was reached. 

5. What great truth regarding the function of the stage 
came to Miss Addams as a result of her witnessing the Ober- 
ammergau Passion Play? 


466 TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE 

6. Recount the difficulties experienced in selecting the 
decorations for the Hull-House i heatre. How was the 
matter finally decided? 

7- Explain Young Lincoln.at the moment he 

received his first impression of the ‘great iniquity.’” 

8. Why would a community like that of the Hull-House dis¬ 
trict respond to appeals to the artistic instinct? 

9. Do you believe it is worth while for purely American- 
communities to cultivate this instinct? Why? 

10. Has your community any organization similar to those 
described in this chapter? 

Chapter XVII. 1. When and under what circumstances 
was President McKinley assassinated? 

2. Why was the editor referred to in this chapter arrested? 
Why did Miss Addams go to visit this editor in prison? 

3. How did Miss Addams see in the story of McKinley’s 
slayer a challenge to the forces for social betterment in Amer¬ 
ican cities? 

4. Discriminate the terms anarchist and socialist , and show 
that the two should never be confused. 

5. How did the Averbuch incident affect the Russian-Jew- 
ish colony’s opinion of America? 

^6.; Which does Miss Addams consider more effective as a 
means toward Americanization, classes in citizenship or 
humane and intelligent treatment of the foreigner? 

7- How only can those who have fled from persecution 
abroad be led to love America and trust in her government? 

8. How did Miss Addams regard the use of assassination 
as a weapon of the Russian revolutionists? How did the 
revolutionists defend themselves? How has this idea carried 
over into the present Russian revolution? 

9. How were Miss Addams and Hull-House penalized 
for attempting to secure a fair hearing for the foreigners? 








I 


STUDY QUESTIONS 467 

10. Do you recognize the allusion to one who “encouraged 
harlots and sinners”? 

Chapter XVIII. i. Why were college extension classes 
opened at Hull-House? 

2. Explain the work of university and normal extension 
courses. 

3. In what ways did the people of the neighborhood show 
. their interest in the Sunday night lectures? 

4. ,Why has it been so difficult to get the right sort of lec¬ 
tures for Hull-House audiences? 

5. Give Miss Addams’s definition of the object of art. In 
what ways has Hull-House sought to attain this objective? 

6. How has the culture Hull-House has sought to give its 
people differed from so-called “college culture”? 

7. What two distinct trends mark the demand for classes 
for women at EIull-House? 

8. What purposes have the trades classes for boys served? 

9. What types of athletic contests have been favored in 
the Hull-House gymnasium? Why? 

10. How does Miss Addams justify the great number of 
purely recreational facilities offered by Hull-House? 

11. Relate the incident of the Columbian Guards. Why 
does Miss Addams class it as “a Quixotic experiment”? 

12. In what ways have the Hull-House residents them¬ 
selves been “educated” through their work? 

13. Why was Miss Adams unable to hold regular religious 
septfices among the residents? 

/ 14. What is the settlement’s “fourfold undertaking”? 

15. Sum up Miss Addams’s account of the educational ac¬ 
tivities of a settlement house. 

16. Explain “ . . . . the attempt to socialize democracy.” 

17. Why is this such an important undertaking in a coun¬ 
try like America? 








































































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